In recent years, Dr. Seneff has focused her research interests back towards biology. She is concentrating mainly on the relationship between nutrition and health. Since 2011, she has published over two dozen papers in various medical and health-related journals on topics such as modern day diseases (e.g., Alzheimer, autism, cardiovascular diseases), analysis and search of databases of drug side effects using NLP techniques, and the impact of nutritional deficiencies and environmental toxins on human health.

Candidates like Alika Atay, the barrel chested, thunderous-voiced leader of Hawaii’s emerging Aina Protectors United movement, an organic farmer and an outspoken Native Hawaiian, are fighting back. He is one of nine members of the reformist Maui Ohana slate running to create a people-powered County Council that is committed to bringing environmental and economic justice to the land of his ancestors. “I am speaking for the land, for the water, for the children,” Atay explains.

(Beyond Pesticides, October 26, 2016) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has launched a criminal investigation at several locations in Missouri into the illegal spraying this summer of the herbicide dicamba. EPA’s investigation is ongoing and stems from widespread complaints of damage to various crops across Missouri and several other states in the Midwest and Southeast. Dicamba, a widely used herbicide, has had frequent problems with drift and subsequent crop injury. Many suspect that farmers who planted the new dicamba-tolerant genetically engineered (GE) seeds in the region, when faced with a proliferation of pigweed this year, illegally sprayed dicamba across their fields, leading to drift and off-site crop damage to other farmers. While USDA has deregulated (approved) dicamba-tolerant crops, EPA is expected to but has not yet registered a formulations of dicamba for use on GE crops. Dicamba is highly volatile and prone to drift.

Monsanto refused to appear and testify at the Tribunal, despite being served with a citizens’ subpoena in St. Louis. But on December 10, the Tribunal judges plan to issue legal advisory opinions based upon international law, including the category of human rights violations that fall under the category of “ecocide.”

Monsanto’s deceptive attempts to control the scientific and public debate on GMOs

At the Monsanto Tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, on 14-16 October 2016, GMWatch’s Claire Robinson spoke about Monsanto’s history of involvement in dishonest and non-transparent efforts to control the scientific and public discourse on genetically modified foods and crops (and associated pesticides), and to force its products into countries across the globe.

Jonathan Latham does it again, with an in-depth look at the widespread impacts of GM herbicide tolerant traits - on the environment, human health, socio-economic impacts, and increasingly complex interactions.

This is the first in a two-part series by Jonathan, the second being an equally in-depth treatment of insecticidal-trait GMOs.

“Steven Druker is an incredible and patient man, who continually contacted the Alliance for Science, pleading that his evidence be presented in their MOOC to balance the debate. They finally conceded, and he did an hour long Q/A with them as part of the "why not GMOs" course. It's under "Course" and on the right side, under "live shingig sessions" under recordings. Or, here's the raw file:

If you watch it, you will see Steven politely educate the leaders of the course on basic facts on GMOs. Most notably, that the FDA requires ZERO safety testing for any new GMOs. And he mentions in his book how GMOs were put on the market illegally by the FDA, in violation of their own food safety laws and concerns of their own FDA scientists. All of this is backed up with irrefutable evidence.

I highly recommend watching this session. The leaders of the course seem to be hearing this information for the first time. I don't blame them, it isn't exactly promulgated widely by the corporations. You can turn this session into several questions for the GMO course.”

But oddly, the EPA Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP) meetings, called to look at potential glyphosate ties to cancer, were “postponed“ just four days before they were to begin Oct. 18, after intense lobbying by the agrichemical industry. The industry first fought to keep the meetings from being held at all, and argued that if they were held, several leading international experts should be excluded from participating, including “any person who has publicly expressed an opinion regarding the carcinogenicity of glyphosate.”

All Signs Point to a Corporate Takeover of the Marijuana Industry by Bayer, Monsanto

“Michael Straumietis, founder and owner of hydroponics nutrients company Advanced Nutrients, has constantly warned the marijuana community about Monsanto, Scotts Miracle-Gro, GMO marijuana, and corporate takeover of the marijuana industry.”The two corporations, which have now merged into one, have agreed to share trade secrets about plans to produce genetically modified marijuana.Monsanto investor George Soros attempts to legalize pot in Uruguay

“Bayer is partnered with GW Pharmaceuticals, which grows its own proprietary marijuana genetics. You can bet Monsanto and Bayer are interested in creating GMO marijuana,” said Straumietis.Billionaire investor, George Soros, previously waged a campaign to legalize pot in Uruguay so that he could invest in the plant. Soros owns 500,000 shares of Monsanto stock.

“Straumietis says South American governmental insiders report that Monsanto is working there on genetically-modified cannabis, along with pharmaceuticalizing THC, other cannabinoids, and terpenoids.”The hydroponics nutrients owner warns that if biotech giants get involved in the cannabis industry, they’ll monopolize it the same way they have the seed, medicine and agricultural chemical industries.

Critics of the world's biggest genetically modified seed corporation, Monsanto, have taken their campaign against GM products to The Hague in the Netherlands where they held what they described as a 'Monsanto Tribunal' - attempting to weigh up allegations of damage to people and the environment by agri-chemical companies. Monsanto will soon be taken over by the German chemicals giant Bayer in a 66 billion dollar deal, giving the combined group control of a third of the global market for seeds and farm chemicals.

Keep in mind the "balance" in their course is a new phenomenon, in stark contrast to last year's "debate course" which was actually held on campus, and was 100% pro GMO, and even slightly ridiculed anyone questioning GMO technology. I was in that class and it's what inspired my course and article.

I strongly believe it's because of my persistence that "balance" is present in their course today... they don't want to look bad retrospectively. Keep in mind, the Alliance for Science (pro GMO group sponsoring the MOOC) used to say on their website "You're more likely to be hit by an asteroid than be harmed by a GMO, and that's a fact"... I'm not kidding. Tell that to the dozens dead and hundreds maimed in the GMO tryptophan disaster. They've since taken the statement down. It is not an isolated example.

Second, the reason there is "balance" at all in the course is due to the incredible persistence of Steven Druker, who is a lecturer in my course as well! Highly recommend you listen to lectures 2 and 3 in my course, especially 2, for perspective.

Long story short, Steven is an incredible and patient man, who continually contacted the Alliance for Science, pleading that his evidence be presented in their MOOC to balance the debate. They finally conceded, and he did an hour long Q/A with them as part of the "why not GMOs" course. It's under "Course" and on the right side, under "live shingig sessions" under recordings. Or, here's the raw file:

If you watch it, you will see Steven politely educate the leaders of the course on basic facts on GMOs. Most notably, that the FDA requires ZERO safety testing for any new GMOs. And he mentions in his book how GMOs were put on the market illegally by the FDA, in violation of their own food safety laws and concerns of their own FDA scientists. All of this is backed up with irrefutable evidence.

I highly recommend watching this session. The leaders of the course seem to be hearing this information for the first time. I don't blame them, it isn't exactly promulgated widely by the corporations. You can turn this session into several questions for the GMO course.

This course (GMO MOOC) skims the surface of almost every issue regarding GMOs. Ours is much more in-depth. Compare the MOOCs version of "how a GMO is made" with Allison's talk, which should come out later today. One barely mentions risk or differences in methods, and one goes deep into the substantial non-equivalence of genetic engineering.

My course isn't an "anti-GMO" thing. I actually have great hope for this technology (but not necessarily in agriculture). I hope you understand that the reason I'm doing this is to go much more in-depth than Cornell always does when it glances over GMO tech, usually in favor. This is propaganda, and lacks balance.

Sometimes issues don't deserve a 50-50 balance. The current GMO venture is based on fraud and subversion of science, no question. The more one learns about all of this, the less impressed one is.

Example, from the GMO MOOC (Ron Herring): "Every respected scientific body has agreed that eating GMOs is safe, including the AAAS."

REALITY: This is far from true. Not every organization has made this claim, as Steven points out. And even the ones that did make this claim, like the AAAS, had internal members of the group resisting such a statement being made at every turn! The AAAS president (Nina Federoff, connected to Monsanto and biotech industry) went against members of her own group to make a highly inaccurate and unscientific statement. Yet this statement was taken at face value, and is constantly referenced by Cornell. Catch my drift? This is why we're so passionate about this topic.

So to answer your question, here are some claims you can question:

-Is there really substantial equivalence between GE and non GE food? What about when the NAS clearly states that transgenic breeding poses unique risks and has a high degree of off-target effects? Most importantly, what is the scientific definition of "substantial equivalence"?! (hint: there isn't one)

-Is transgenetic engineering really a precise, accurate method of breeding when one requires almost 100,000 attempts to move DNA into the target, and thousands of more hoops to jump through before we get even one transgenic plant (which still produces unintended, inexplainable effects)? Is the gene gun or agrobacterium transfer truly "precision agriculture"?

-Are GMOs necessary or even desirable to feed the world when the WHO and many other global agriculture organizations have come out in favor of agroecology in place of industrial GM crops, for true food security? Same goes for yield, drought resistance, climate change resilience, carbon sequestration, economic benefits to small farmers and communities, scalability, etc...?

-Is GMO tech really the "only" solution for some agricultural problems, as Cornell MOOC claims? Example: papaya ... how come there was no mention of the non-GMO virus-resistant papaya which has always been ready to go? What about the scientific uncertainty of using viral transgenes? What about how the Hawaii papaya market is only at 50% of what it was before the blight, in contrast to rave reviews of success for GM technology?

-Shouldn't we be focused on the primary applications of GE tech, instead of future potentials? GMO is only a technology (not "science"), and technologies are only as good as we apply them. Currently, over 99% of GE crops are herbicide tolerant, Bt insecticidal, or both. Both of these "technologies" come with massive environmental risk, and yes some human health risk as well. We also feed the majority to animals, which is a key contributing factor to climate change and GHG emissions (actually the leading cause). Where is the MOOCs appropriate criticism of these applications?

Massive US Research Project Set to Study Glyphosate Effects on Human Health

The Detox Project announced Friday in New York that a new massive research project will be launched in January 2017 to study the effects of the world’s most used herbicide – glyphosate – on human health.

The research project will enable the general public in America to find out how much glyphosate is in their own urine as well as enabling them to help expert independent scientists to study how glyphosate effects the human body, with many areas of follow up research already planned.

How can you get involved?

You can get involved by signing up to The Detox Project waiting list here.

Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign Chairman, John Podesta, who is at the center of the Wikileaks e-mail storm, has now been linked to lobbying payments by the U.S. biotech giant Monsanto of $150,000 in 2015.

It was also revealed Saturday that Hillary Clinton’s campaign Treasurer Jose H. Villarreal has been linked to Monsanto lobbying payments of $150,000 so far in 2016.

This new Monsanto bombshell for the Clinton campaign was released by Brasil sem Monsanto and Sustainable Pulse following a search of publicly available lobbying records.

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This latest Monsanto bombshell for the Clinton campaign follows the news from February this year that the global GMO promoters Cornell Alliance for Science, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, are giving Hillary Clinton as an example of one of the ‘powerful people‘ who supports GMOs and the Biotech industry worldwide.

Grocery group fined $18M in fight against GMO food-labeling initiative

“It’s one of my happiest days as attorney general,” Ferguson said in an interview. “GMA’s conduct was just so egregious. They are sophisticated people and they set about to conceal these donations from the people of Washington state.”

“In the regions, where farm communities live close to coca crops, the government accuses landowners of illegal coca production and using this excuse constantly air-sprays their fields with glyphosate. This chemical destroys coca randomly along with other agricultural crops, causing irretrievable harm to animals and people, especially to children, seniors and pregnant women.”

The partisans try to shoot down U.S. crop duster aircraft loaded with chemical death. To escape the fire pilots go higher and the glyphosate crop dusting becomes even less precisely aimed.

(Beyond Pesticides, November 2, 2016) A California-based company, Steep Hill, revered as the global leader in cannabis testing and analytics, recently released a report on the prevalence of pesticide contamination in the medical cannabis supply chain in California. The results reveal that 84% of samples tested positive for pesticide residues, a number significantly higher than experts had previously expected, causing great cause for concern for California medical cannabis consumers.

…

When burned, myclobutanil turns into a poisonous hydrogen cyanide, a colorless and extremely poisonous compound that can be lethal in high doses. Hydrogen cyanide affects organs most sensitive to low oxygen levels, including the brain, cardiovascular system and lungs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hydrogen Cyanide is also a Schedule 3 substance under the Chemical Weapons Convention.

The Environmental Protection Agency today reapproved and proposed a dramatic expansion of the use of the toxic pesticide Enlist Duo after only a cursory review of troubling data showing the two chemicals in the pesticide combine to have “synergistic” effects that are potentially harmful to endangered species and the environment. If approved the pesticide cocktail could be used on corn, soy and cotton in 35 states — up from 16 states where the product was previously approved for just corn and soy.

The “Farm to Food Bank” bill (Senate Bill 7833/Assembly Bill 10584) allows New York farmers to receive a refundable tax credit for donations made to food banks and other emergency food programs serving low-income New Yorkers. If enacted, it would benefit New York farmers by making it more economically feasible for them to donate food to those in need; the bill would also benefit the environment by decreasing food waste and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from landfills; and, most importantly, it would benefit impoverished, food-insecure individuals by increasing their access to fresh, healthy produce.

Congress has passed three of the worst trade deals in history — 1993’s NAFTA, China’s 2001 entry into the World Trade Organization, and the 2012 South Korean agreement. Each time, we were assured by the White House and elite globalist think tanks these deals would create thousands of jobs, increase wages, and strengthen our manufacturing base. Each time, the deals have hemorrhaged jobs, depressed wages, and ballooned America’s trade deficit.

Following a series of reports in these columns recently, the GHMC’s food controllers conducted searches in city supermarkets and seized GE food products imported from the US and Canada. The samples were collected under the provisions of the Food Safety Act from Balaji Super Market in Banjara Hills. GHMC food safety officials served notices on two companies, Shree Agencies and SR International, involved in the distribution of GE foods in Hyderabad supermarkets.

The use of glyphosate has increased dramatically in recent years, due in large part to Monsanto’s introduction of Roundup Ready crops, which are genetically modified (GMO) to be resistant to the herbicide, and allow farmers to spray their fields without damaging their corn and soybean crops. And even though Monsanto claimed that its GMO products would reduce overall herbicide and pesticide use, from 1996 to 2011, the use of the company’s Roundup Ready crops actually increased herbicide use in the United States by 527 million pounds. This is only the beginning of Monsanto’s history of deception.

In addition to allegedly falsifying data on the safety of Roundup, Monsanto has also claimed that the glyphosate-based herbicide is “biodegradable” and “environmentally friendly,” even as the weed killer has been linked to cancer and other serious side effects. One of the first links between Roundup weed killer and the risk of cancer was reported by an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) committee in 1985, and the issue is again at the forefront of the herbicide and pesticide debate.

The “experts” tell us that the thousands of toxic chemicals and animal drugs used in GMO and chemical-intensive agriculture and consumer products are “generally regarded as safe” (GRAS), based on biased industry “safety” studies, scientific fraud, and outdated protocols. Legitimizing industry propaganda, U.S. bureaucrats love to brag that the U.S. not only has the “cheapest,” food you can buy, but also the “safest.”

Waitrose has announced Tuesday that their pork products will now start to be fed some non-GMO European soya from the Danube region, marking the possible beginning of the end of the last large-scale use of GM crops in the UK.

With demand outpacing supply of organic food, big producers like General Mills and Organic Valley get creative

A little more than 200 miles northwest, on the manicured lawns of a suburban corporate campus, executives at General Mills’ headquarters recently made a deal with Organic Valley to boost organic products in its vast array of foods.

The U.S. has a shortage of organic milk, and General Mills — in the midst of expanding its organic yogurt business through its Annie’s and Liberte brands — is relying on Organic Valley for help.

General Mills signed a multiyear agreement that ensures it access to milk from Organic Valley farmers. As part of the arrangement, General Mills will help build the supply with financial support to farmers transitioning from conventional to organic methods. This will add 3,000 acres of organic production to General Mills’ source pool over the next three years.

…

Over the last year, General Mills has publicly disclosed the businesses it believes have more growth potential, like natural and organic cereals, snacks and yogurt, and is focusing more of its resources on those products. A stable dairy supply is needed if the company’s big push into organic yogurt is to succeed.

Jeff Moyer, executive director at Rodale Institute and keynote speaker at next month’s Organic & Non-GMO Forum, along with other industry experts, will examine the complexities of developing an organic or non-GMO supply chain at this second annual event, Nov. 14-15 at the Hyatt Regency in Minneapolis.

Moyer has been helping farmers transition from conventional farming to organic methods for nearly a lifetime with his work at Rodale Institute, which is committed to research in organic agriculture, advocating for policies that support farmers, and educating people about organic options. In 2015, he was appointed executive director at the Rodale Institute.

US Farmers & Ranchers Alliance reportedly gets $500,000 a year from Monsanto and DuPont

As the article below reports, the US Farmers & Ranchers Alliance (USFRA) and five other Big Ag lobby groups have sent a letter to dairy company Dannon’s chief executive officer criticising the company for requiring its farmers to use non-GMO feed.

Randy Mooney, chairman of the National Milk Producers Federation (an affiliate of the USFRA and also a signatory of the letter to Dannon), is quoted as saying that Dannon’s non-GMO feed requirement is the “tipping point” in a retreat from sustainability. That claim is also made in USFRA’s letter. Mooney refers to Dannon’s estimate that about 80,000 acres of conventional farmland will be converted to non-GMO and warns of a “domino effect” throughout the whole dairy industry. (Let’s hope he’s right on that.)

Industry swagger is on full display in Washington where Monsanto and its friends at CropLife America are driving efforts to cut off U.S. funding for the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) after IARC scientists declared glyphosate a probable human carcinogen in March 2015. The industry is also demanding that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) fully repudiate the IARC classification and green-light continued use of glyphosate herbicides, which spell billions of dollars in sales annually to Monsanto and the agrichemical brethren.

(Beyond Pesticides, October 31, 2016) Only three of the top 20 food retailers receive a passing grade when it comes to their pollinator protection policies, according to a report released by Friends of the Earth. Swarming the Aisles; Rating Top Retailers on Bee-Friendly and Organic Food takes a closer look at the policies and practices of food retailers across the country and creates an industry scorecard highlighting how each individual retailer fairs in categories like organics, pollinator protection, and pesticide reduction. While some individual chains performed well, overall the results indicate that food retailers have a long way to go to meet consumer demand when it comes to protecting pollinators and establishing organic policies.

"The NYT has finally admitted what a number of us have been saying for 20 years. GMOs are designed to increase the sales of the proprietary toxic pesticides and patented seeds of Monsanto and the other gene giants, and offer nothing in the way of increased nutrition, yield, adaptation to climate change, nor reduction of pesticide and chemical inputs." -Ronnie Cummins, founder and director of the Organic Consumers Association

New York Times Takes Critical Look at False Promise of GMOs

"One measure, contained in data from the United States Geological Survey, shows the stark difference in the use of pesticides. Since genetically modified crops were introduced in the United States two decades ago for crops like corn, cotton and soybeans, the use of toxins that kill insects and fungi has fallen by a third, but the spraying of herbicides, which are used in much higher volumes, has risen by 21 percent.

(Beyond Pesticides, October 28, 2016) Lawmakers in the New Jersey House and Senate introduced bills this legislative session to stop the use of toxic lawn care pesticides on children’s playing fields. The Safe Playing Fields Act, introduced by Representatives Daniel Benson (D) and Holly Schepisi (R) in the New Jersey Assembly and Senator Shirley Turner (D) in the Senate will eliminate the use of toxic registered pesticides on school grounds in favor of “low impact pesticides” considered minimum risk by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. This is the latest legislative push to pass this Act after attempts in 2011 and 2012.

The Doubt Machine: Inside The Koch Brothers' War on Climate Science&#8203;

Narrated by esteemed actor Emma Thompson, &#8203;the documentary "The Doubt Machine: Inside the Koch Brothers' War on Climate Science" reveals how the Koch Brothers have used their vast wealth to ensure the American political system takes no action on climate change&#8203;,&#8203; &#8203;and are&#8203; &#8203;attempting&#8203; to buy the 2016 Congressional elections.

But state and city officials never warned residents and the decision to clean it up was deferred 16 more years, a Democrat and Chronicle investigation has found. Children dug for worms and played in the dirt, and adults planted gardens for more than a generation; oblivious to the small but real risk posed by that tainted soil.

Alarming Levels of Glyphosate Contamination Found in Popular American Foods

For the full report on this unique food testing project including detailed scientific background click here. Or for a shortened link Click here:bit.ly/glyphosateFood

The results published in this report are from the first independent glyphosate residue testing of popular American food products performed using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), the regulatory recognized “gold standard” testing methods at an FDA registered laboratory.

These newest findings also come as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) postponed hearings last month, which were due to explore glyphosate’s link to cancer in humans.

The FDA’s residue testing for glyphosate was combined with a broader herbicides analysis program the FDA set in motion in February of this year. But the glyphosate testing has been particularly challenging for the FDA. The agency was finally forced to put the glyphosate residue testing part of the work plan on hold amid confusion, disagreement and difficulties with establishing a standard methodology to use across the agency’s multiple U.S. laboratories, according to FDA sources. Equipment issues have also been a problem, with some labs citing a need for more sensitive instruments, sources within FDA said.

FDA spokeswoman Megan McSeveney confirmed the testing suspension and said the agency is not sure when it will resume.

“As testing for glyphosate will expand to several locations, we are currently working to ensure that the methods are validated for use in these labs. As soon as the validation is completed, testing for glyphosate will resume,” she said. “We cannot speculate on timing at this point.”

Big Biotech and Big Food think the only reason consumers don’t like their GMO foods is because we are just too ignorant to “understand” their benefits. So to help “educate” us, groups like the Grocery Manufacturers Association, the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, and the Corn Growers Association, among others, want Congress to give them some of our taxpayer money to help promote their toxic, unhealthy, environmentally unfriendly products.

(Beyond Pesticides, November 14, 2016) New research published by Meracris, a provider of market data and trading for organic, non-GMO (genetically modified organisms or (GE) genetically engineered) and certified agricultural commodities, documents an 11 percent increase in organic farmland since 2014. The number of certified organic farms grew to almost 15,000, marking a 6.2 percent increase of organic farms between June 2016 and 2014. The top five states leading the transformation to organic fields are California, Montana, Wisconsin, New York and North Dakota. California heads the pack, claiming 688,000 acres dedicated to organic farming techniques. There are now 4.1 million acres of organic farmland in the United States, and that number is predicted to keep increasing as the demand for organic products continues to rise. A recent market analysis by the Organic Trade Association found that Americans have spent $43 billion on organic products in 2016 a $4.2 billion increase from 2015.

Regenerative—not ‘Climate-Smart’—Agriculture Needed to Feed the World and Cool the Planet

Speaking to a panel hosted by the Social Innovation and Global Ethics Forum in conjunction with the COP22 Climate Summit, Cummins told participants that “Climate-Smart Agriculture” (CSA), is a clever term used to describe a limited approach to adapting to climate change and to addressing global food insecurity through agricultural practices that fail to meet the standard of regeneration.

A matter of fraud: hidden poisons in pesticides - Message from prof. Gilles Eric Séralini to the Monsanto Tribunal and People’s Assembly.

Transcript and six minute video.

Nicolas Defarge, from Dr Séralini’s team, was present at the Monsanto Tribunal. Please find the video of his testimony at the end of Séralini’s transcript: “Studies from Monsanto have not been published in any scientific magazines. In Roundup, for example, glyphosate it is not the only toxic that needs to be addressed, the other additives are more toxic and dangerous because there is a synergistic effect. Where is the truthful science here?”

Thirty years ago I began my career trying to know what are the pollutants in babies’ genes, and I saw that three of the major pollutants belong to Monsanto. At the time, I had nothing against them. But I saw that the PCBs, which are from the plasticiser family, and derivatives of petroleum residues, dioxins (also derivatives of petroleum), and pesticides (including Agent Orange or RoundUp, which is the world’s main pesticide) were there. And what I did was try to find a mechanism by which they could give chronic diseases, and because in fact every family in the world is ridden by chronic diseases and people are suffering all over the world because of them.

These diseases are not due to bacteria or viruses, and not due to a genetic ‘shift’ in humanity, no. We have more and more pesticides inside ourselves. There is no human organ, no brain, no mammary gland that is devoid of pesticides from these big companies.

So we discovered just major frauds and problems at the scientific level: that the products declared as ‘inert’ were fantastically toxic, in fact. One thousand times more toxic than the supposed active ingredient that Monsanto was putting in the world’s major pesticides, used on 80% of edible agricultural GMOs. So you imagine that the world’s major toxic products in the world are in food and are designed to be even more present in modified food.

So what we did was to treat some human cells with these products and we saw that the hidden poisons were in fact petroleum residues burned probably with animal fat called PoEA (long chains of polycyclic hydrocarbons) one thousand times more toxic, as I said, than glyphosate for instance, which is a major chemical presented as a pesticide by Monsanto; but when we test the glyphosate pesticide alone, it does not have any proper herbicidal activity; when you test these hidden poisons alone, they do have it. So this is a matter of fraud: to declare the wrong activating region and to declare hidden poisons as confidential and harmless.

What we did then was the longest test possible with these products applied to rats. We discovered that they were getting tumours, kidney diseases from which the rats were dying, and also liver diseases. And then, Monsanto and allies, they all came on us and defamed us everywhere in the world, because they have friends in all health agencies throughout the world. And they said very stupid things but we didn’t realize how ridiculous their arguments were at first. They said those were the wrong rats, a species that was naturally prone to tumours… so we took the rats and saw that they were not prone to tumours when you gave them a clean, organic diet. We also saw that the rats they were talking about, used for their own experiments, were highly contaminated by industrial food retaining huge amounts of pesticides – and we published that.

And now all these people – 85 of them in the world – have more money than 3.5 billion people: you could reach up to 3.5 billion people at these Assemblies and still not be as rich as these companies that are making the major poisons in the world. That’s abnormal, it’s against any form of life.

I dedicated my entire life as a researcher to find the way in which these products render our children sick and I would like now a rise of conscience from all of you – and there is a big hope to request transparency. We have also learned how to de-toxify the body from these poisons: this is possible with good aromatic plants. We know today that with a clean diet, obtained with agroecological methods, we can really slow down the number of chronic diseases. So let’s do it, and let’s have, all together, a rise in conscience.

BREAKING NEWS: Sonoma County, California Passes Measure M to Ban GMO Crop Cultivation. YES 55.9% to NO 44.1%. Sonoma joins Humboldt, Marin, Mendocino, Santa Cruz and Trinity Counties, and bridges the largest GMO Free Zone in the United States. Everyone is glad this election is over. But the work we have in front of us has certainly not changed. Let's get to work expanding the GMO Free Zones in America and shifting the market for a non-GMO and organic food system. Sonoma County shows that when we make the effort, Monsanto doesn't win. Boycott GMOs. Ban GMOs. Change the food system.

Under the draft German law, applicants seeking EU approval to cultivate GMO crops will be asked by the German government to remove Germany from the area in the EU where the crops are approved for growing.

If this is refused, a ban on growing the GMO crop in Germany can be imposed even if the EU approves the plant strain as safe to cultivate.

Ignoring the legal requirement to examine threats to endangered species, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved Wednesday the use of the dangerously toxic herbicide dicamba on crops genetically modified to tolerate the chemical.

(Beyond Pesticides, November 10, 2016) In the wake of the monumental decision to elect Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States, Beyond Pesticides’ work to protect public health and the environment is more critical than ever. On Tuesday, November 8, 2016 saw Mr. Trump prevail in winning the presidency, and Republicans hold on to their majorities in both the U.S. House and the Senate. In the coming months, the President-elect will deliberate on cabinet appointments, which will impact pesticide and agriculture policy and the laws and regulations that have the capacity to protect citizens from the harmful effects of chemical intensive practices.

According to an article in Scientific American, Donald Trump may select Myron Ebell, “one of the best-known climate skeptics” and director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, to lead his U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) transition team. This represents a blow to the environmental movement, which has been building momentum to fight global climate change, transition to organic agricultural systems, and protect the public from the threat of corporate mergers that threaten farmers, rural communities, and consumers. Despite having few details on environmental policy, it is clear from Donald Trump’s campaign speeches and the information available on his website that protecting the environment and public health is not high on his list of priorities.

State Attorneys General Join Fight to Stop Agrochemical Industry Mergers

(Beyond Pesticides, November 9, 2016) Seven state attorneys general (AGs) have joined together to investigate federal antitrust concerns related to the merger of agrochemcial giants Dow Chemical and DuPont. A separate group of state AGs is expected to form to simultaneously probe a similar merger between Bayer and Monsanto. This involvement signals grave concern from states over the prospect of these large-scale mergers, which would concentrate control in fewer companies, thus giving monopoly status to a smaller number of chemical manufacturers in the agrochemical industry. Reuters reports that the involvement of the state AGs will increase scrutiny of these mega deals, as they were previously only being reviewed at the federal level by antitrust experts at the Department of Justice (DOJ). Since DOJ has yet to file a lawsuit opposing the mergers, groups and individuals who want to see the mergers blocked are thrilled to see the states get involved and urge DOJ to act.

The international coalition No Patents on Seeds! has for many years been demanding that these patents are stopped. With the support of many thousands of supporters, they have filed petitions and oppositions. They are seriously concerned about the increasing monopolisation of the seed and food production. The organisations in the international coalition are now calling on the political decision-makers to ensure that the EPO fully adopts the EU statement, and the rules for the interpretation of patent law become legally binding.

EU Commission pushes for first GMO cultivation authorizations in 18 years

The EU Commission and a few pro-GMO member states are trying to sneak through approvals for new GM crops to be grown in Europe's fields – and they seem to be hoping that the public, press, concerned NGOs, and even MEPs won’t notice.

Why Are Taxpayers Being Asked to Pay to Promote a Failed GMO Technology?

Last weekend (Oct. 29), the New York Times ran a piece on how the biotech industry has failed to deliver on its promises for GMO crops. The article followed less than a month after the biotech industry asked congressional leaders for $3 million in taxpayer-provided funding to “educate” the public about biotechnology and agricultural production.

Congress should turn down this request for two reasons. First, the biotech and food industries should spend their own money to market their products. And second, Congress shouldn’t use taxpayer money to promote what scientists and international organizations have said for years, and the latest investigation by the Times reveals, is a technology that not only doesn’t live up it its hype, but is counterproductive to resolving the critical issues of global food sovereignty and global warming.

The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) will now permit barley producers to use glyphosate on non-malting barley crops. Glyphosate is an herbicide that is applied to rid crops of weeds.

In Letter to EPA on Atrazine Hazards, House Republicans Challenge Science, Call the Weedkiller Safe

(Beyond Pesticides, November 7, 2016) In a letter last week on the widely used weedkiller atrazine, Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) and 105 of his colleagues told Gina McCarthy, administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), that, “It would be irresponsible to greatly restrict one of the safest and most trusted herbicides on the market.” The letter was triggered by EPA’s release in June of its draft Ecological Risk Assessment on atrazine, which found levels of concerns exceeded by as much as 200-fold for some organisms. Lawmakers indicated that the draft assessment in its present form, “Would have a significant impact on farmers and rural communities nationwide.” Despite a wealth of information to the contrary, they claim that restricting the use of atrazine would put an unnecessary financial burden on farmers.

(Beyond Pesticides, November 8, 2016) A report published last month from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finds that over 2,600 cases of acute pesticide poisoning occurred among workers in 12 states between 2007 and 2011. The report, published by CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), highlights the hazards conventional pesticides pose to both farm and non-farm workers who apply these inherently toxic chemicals. Results of this study underscore the importance of calls from public health and farmworker advocacy groups for improving the protection of workers who grow and harvest the food that makes its way to American’s dinner plates. The results also support a wholesale transition away from toxic chemicals in favor of organic and sustainable alternatives.

Eugene, OR – Today, the federal court in Eugene, Oregon decided in favor of 21 youth plaintiffs in their “groundbreaking” constitutional climate lawsuit against President Obama, numerous federal agencies, and the fossil fuel industry. U.S. District Court Judge Ann Aiken completely rejected all arguments to dismiss raised by the federal government and fossil fuel industry, determining that the young plaintiffs’ constitutional and public trust claims could proceed. Now, the 21 plaintiffs, who range in age from 9-20, are preparing for trial in what is believed to be a turning point in United States constitutional history.

A sweeping Pacific trade pact meant to bind the U.S.and Asia effectively died Friday, as Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress told the White House they won’t advance it in the election’s aftermath, and Obama administration officials acknowledged it has no way forward now.

Cornell does this with a huge percentage of its own community absolutely appalled with this behavior. While not the only issue on campus, it is representative of ALL other issues at Cornell University.

We can take back our university from corporate control, but only if we all band together and hold the board of trustees accountable for their behavior.

This is an open and honest discussion for the whole community. This is a vegan potluck! Bring a dish and untensils, plates, etc...

Together we can create great change. It starts with knowledge, dialogue, honesty, and love.

From the GMO WTF organizer: "Thank you all! Just wanted to offer a quick note. The GMO course is OVER as of yesterday. The remaining lectures are coming soon, but I didn't want to keep Vandana Shiva's message from you all!

I can't think of a better final capstone for this project than a message from Vandana. What a powerful voice in this movement! Thank you so much Vandana, for this message, and your entire life's work. You are an inspiration to us all.

This project helped me to grow in tremendous ways, and I'm excited that this is merely the beginning.

I'm headed to California for some GMO activism-related stuff, and to spend some time with my family! I should get plenty of editing done, and get the remaining content up over the next few weeks. I should be able to catch up on all the email and messages too, thanks everyone for being patient!. Thanks to each and every one of you for supporting this project by being on this list. I'm inspired by the global community supporting higher education reform.

A huge thanks to everyone that contributed donations during this series. It means more than I can express. Without your support, this would have never happened!

Stay tuned, I've amassed a ton of great content that should keep us busy for the rest of this year. We have BIG plans for our series next semester. Please be in touch if you have any ideas or contributions!

Cheers everyone, this is just the beginning. Thank you for all the love over the weeks. Stay in touch! Robert"

A federal judge has ruled that three Hawaii counties can’t enact their own bans or regulations on genetically modified crops and pesticides, handing a victory to the major agriculture companies that fought the regulations.

Los Angeles - Moms Across America has launched the fourth edition of a series for their national billboard campaign to promote organic food.

The messages are currently appearing on 195 digital billboards in 25 cities nationwide. The campaign is expected to achieve 54 million impressions during the months of November and December. Thanks to the reach of Adams + Fairway Outdoor Advertising, Moms Across America is able to reach the general public with a message that could alter the health of America over the holidays.

Moms Across America’s Executive Director states, “Many people have been convinced by conventional and GMO food manufacturers that organic food is simply a marketing tactic, that there is no difference except a higher price, and does not impact health. This couldn’t be further from the truth. The truth is that ALL food used to be organic. Only in the past twenty years has food been changed, genetically modified to withstand repeated spraying of chemicals known to be linked to neurotoxicity, cell damage and death, reproductive changes and even cancer. We see our loved ones get better when they eat organic. What better time than over the holidays, at family gatherings, to bring and serve organic food and start a conversation which can lead to improved health.”

The US EPA has announced new dates for its glyphosate cancer review meetings: 13-16 December.

The EPA has capitulated to CropLife (a Monsanto- and industry-funded group) and removed the epidemiologist Dr Peter Infante from the review panel. CropLife had specifically demanded that EPA remove Dr Infante.

CropLife said it wanted Dr Infante off glyphosate cancer review panel in part because he might favour independent research over industry-funded studies.

Dr Damián Verzeñassi spoke at the Monsanto Tribunal in The Hague about the health impacts of GMOs and associated pesticides in Argentina. For his pains, his office was chained shut and his fellow researchers were removed from their posts.

Tribes Revive Indigenous Crops, And The Food Traditions That Go With Them

Keen wants to reclaim those farming roots with a project called Sacred Seed. With help from students and some urban farmers in Omaha, he's raising indigenous crops on about a dozen plots around the city. The goal is to preserve these native vegetable varieties and revive the traditions around growing and eating them.

(Beyond Pesticides, November 17, 2016) This week, the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) is meeting in St. Louis to hear public comments on organic agricultural issues that will ultimately influence standards and processes. One major issue before the board is a motion on whether hydroponic and aquaponics operations can be certified organic. Farmers that practice hydroponic growing techniques are hoping to get the attention of the NOSB as they make an argument for their place in the certified organic industry, while others will be there to reject these arguments and uphold organic as soil-based agriculture. Despite a 2010 recommendation from the NOSB to prohibit allowing hydroponic production to quality as organic, USDA’s National Organic Program allowed organic labeling of the sector, which has experienced rapid growth in recent years. Typically, consumers have no way of knowing that the organic labeled products they are buying were grown organically.

At the current time, there are genetically modified agricultural crops (GMOs) in some Girl Scout Cookies. For the Girl Scout cookie consumers who prefer an alternative, our Girl Scout S’mores™ sandwich cookies are made with verified non-GMO ingredients. In response to the changing desires of cookie customers, our Girl Scout S’mores™ are made with natural flavors, no artificial coloring, no high fructose corn syrup, no preservatives, no hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils and verified non-GMO ingredients.

“Soil has always been the basis of organic production,” said Steve Sprinkel, an organic farmer in Ojai, Calif. “The soil is alive and releasing micronutrients to plants that use their roots to scavenge and forage those things, and so taking care of the soil is the bedrock of organic farming.”

Seneff: “Bummer! Pretty shocking that they don't even have a methodology worked out for how to test for glyphosate. And they're not testing for 2,4-D either - it's usage is going up now that there are so many problems with glyphosate-resistant weeds.”

Beyond the numerous safety, environmental and health issues around E15, automobile companies have been wary of the higher blend because of its potentially damaging effects on both new and older vehicles. Reflecting the confusion and uncertainty surrounding E15, no carmaker provided very detailed or confident answers to EWG’s questions, but four said clearly that using E15 would void their warranties if engine problems were caused by using the higher ethanol blend. Other companies recommended contacting a local dealer for answers or checking back later, or just suggested using a high-octane (and more expensive) blend.

We got the best answer we could from whatever employee took our call, and here’s what we were told:

Just to give you an idea of how outrageous these amounts are, independent research shows that probable harm to human health begins at really low levels of exposure – at only 0.1 ppb of glyphosate. Many foods were found to have over 1,000 times this amount! Well above what regulators throughout the world consider “safe”.

General Mills Teams Up With The Largest Organic Farmer-Owned Cooperative

General Mills on Monday announced a new sourcing partnership with Organic Valley, America’s largest organic farmer-owned cooperative, which will help 20 dairy farms add nearly 3,000 acres to organic dairy farming capacity over the next three years.

General Mills has been on a mission to double the organic acreage from which it sources its ingredients by 2019, and this new partnership will help the maker of products like Haagen-Dazs and Cheerios reach that goal in time. The partnership will also provide resources and support to help more dairy farmers get their farmland approved as organic by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

With demand outpacing supply of organic food, big producers like General Mills and Organic Valley get creative

General Mills signed a multiyear agreement that ensures it access to milk from Organic Valley farmers. As part of the arrangement, General Mills will help build the supply with financial support to farmers transitioning from conventional to organic methods. This will add 3,000 acres of organic production to General Mills’ source pool over the next three years.

Your efforts to inform and educated the dangers of glyphosate application have not gone unnoticed. Residents of Better Housing for Tompkins County and Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services have spoken forcefully sharing their concerns, resulting in a standing moratorium on future applications at affected properties.

Thank you MissingArty.

_________________________"Everything that has ever happened to us is there to make us stronger."-John Trudell

An investor alleges Monsanto Chief Executive Officer Hugh Grant stands to collect $18 million in cash and benefits, and that directors would similarly benefit from the merger. Grant and board members suffer conflicts of interest and have withheld information from investors in a bid to pursue the deal, according to the complaint.

EPA put Dow's "Enlist Duo" cocktail of glyphosate and 2,4-D back on the market, after pulling it off just a year ago due to widespread concern. The agency also gave a green light to Monsanto's new formulation of dicamba, intended for use with the corporation's latest line of GE soy and cotton crops. Both approvals mean a dramatic increase in the use of health-harming herbicides on farmland across the country.

This is the first in a two-part series by Jonathan, the second being an equally in-depth treatment of insecticidal-trait GMOs. Jonathan is a geneticist, virologist, and editor of http://www.independentsciencenews.org/

A study of GMO cotton varieties shows they disrupt an important beneficial soil fungus, writes Eva Sirinathsinghji, apparently due to the Bt insecticide they are engineered to express. Disruption caused by the transgenic cotton to mycorrhizal fungi, and the wider soil ecosystem, may underlie the low yields and poor pest resistance now endemic among Bt GM crops.

The organic label’s prohibition of genetically modified foods will include next-generation engineering techniques like synthetic biology and gene editing, after the National Organic Standards Board voted unanimously to update United States Organic Standards on Friday.

Before the Holiday Feast: New Data on Pesticides in Food Raises Safety Questions

Data released last week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows varying levels of pesticide residues in everything from mushrooms to potatoes and grapes to green beans. One sample of strawberries contained residues of 20 pesticides, according to the “Pesticide Data Program” (PDP) report issued this month by the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service. The report is the 25th annual such compilation of residue data for the agency, and covered sampling the USDA did in 2015

Notably, the agency said only 15 percent of the 10,187 samples tested were free from any detectable pesticide residues. That’s a marked difference from 2014, when the USDA found that over 41 percent of samples were “clean” or showed no detectable pesticide residues. Prior years also showed roughly 40-50 percent of samples as free of detectable residues, according to USDA data. The USDA said it is not “statistically valid” to compare one year to others, however, because the mix of food sampled changes each year. Still the data shows that 2015 was similar to the years prior in that fresh and processed fruits and vegetables made up the bulk of the foods tested.

Greenpeace EU food policy director Franziska Achterberg said: “The ruling says that regulators must release all research used to evaluate the dangers of pesticides, and cannot keep it secret to protect industry interests. Based on the ruling, national and EU authorities should release these studies automatically, and not only following freedom of information requests. Transparency in pesticide assessments is vital, as public health and our environment are at risk.”

Hans Muilerman, Pesticide Action Network Europe chemical officer, said: “Safety tests done by industry on their own products constitute a clear conflict of interest. Disclosure of the full tests will show if the summaries presented by industry to governments agree with the outcomes of the original tests conducted.”

The Swedish chemicals agency Kemi has decided to end the sale of herbicides containing both glyphosate and POE-tallowamine in line with the ban on combined use adopted by the European Commission over the summer

Following the release last week of a report by Food Democracy Now! and The Detox Project on alarming levels of glyphosate contamination found in popular American foods, Anresco Laboratories (San Francisco) has released a statement on the testing methods it is using for what it calls the ”new era of glyphosate testing in food”.

Expertise for sale: How an expert with close links to industry has been influencing policy for decades

In 2015 toxicologist Helmut Greim told the German Parliament that glyphosate herbicide doesn’t pose a cancer risk. But he has a history of defending toxic products that dates back to 1994 – and has been less than transparent about his industry links.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued its decisions Friday on whether federal and Hawai‘i state laws preempt Hawai‘i counties’ authority to regulate genetically modified (GM) crops and pesticide use. Of significance to state and local communities throughout the United States, the Ninth Circuit ruled that federal law—specifically, the Plant Protection Act—does not prohibit states and counties from passing local laws to regulate and ban commercially-grown GM crops.

“Today’s decision to allow states and counties to ban or regulate GM crops is an important victory for GM-free seed sanctuaries and small communities and farmers around the country,” said George Kimbrell, senior attorney for the Center for Food Safety.

In granting its decision the Court recognized potential harm to farmers and environment from the widespread planting of GE crops, asserting, “the cultivation and testing of GM plants raise several well-documented concerns.” Notably, the Court affirmed, “transgenic contamination has previously caused significant economic impacts on farmers of conventional, non-GM crops.” The Court acknowledged as well that “the cultivation of GM crops also may raise environmental concerns, such as harm to beneficial plants and animals caused by the increased use of pesticides sometimes associated with testing and growing GM crops, the proliferation of ‘superweeds’ and other pests resistant to pesticides, and the reduction of biodiversity.” The Court went on to declare: “The regulation of commercialized crops, both of GM and traditional varieties, remains within the authority of state and local governments.”

At the same time, however, the Court ruled that under Hawai‘i law, counties and municipalities do not have the authority to regulate GM crops (as some in other states do), and that Hawai‘i state law places such authority in the hands of the State alone.

Earthjustice attorney Paul Achitoff commented: “We’re disappointed that the Court misinterpreted Hawai‘i law and concluded the Hawai‘i legislature decided Hawai‘i counties lack any such authority. The legislature did not, and the decision leaves Hawai‘i unprotected from the harms the Ninth Circuit acknowledged. We believe that when Hawai‘i’s state courts have an opportunity, they will reject the Ninth Circuit’s conclusion on this point and allow Hawai‘i’s people to protect themselves, since the State certainly hasn’t protected them.”

The Court also ruled that the USDA alone has the authority to regulate field trials and experimental GM crops; neither states nor local governments can ban or approve. This is particularly troubling to communities in Hawai‘i, since the many field trials and associated pesticide use in Hawai‘i poses significant risks to local citizens and the environment.

“We are extremely disappointed with the ruling that some experimental GM field trials can only be regulated by USDA, and are considering all legal options. Most importantly, we continue to stand and fight with the people of Hawai&#699;i against these chemical companies,” said Kimbrell.

“As a mother and a resident of Kekaha, Kaua&#699;i, I will continue to stand up and protect my family and my community,” says Malia Kahale‘ina Chun, a mother, educator and Native Hawaiian cultural practitioner. “It is our responsibility to insure that our keiki have access to clean air, clean water and to ‘&#257;ina that sustains them.”

Attorneys with Center for Food Safety and Earthjustice, who represented local residents, conservation groups, and Hawai‘i County in the proceedings, are analyzing the full scope of the court’s decisions and will be considering options that would protect Hawai‘i’s people, farms and the environment.

Field trial of genetically modified mosquitoes gets approval in Florida

Several steps remain before the trial can commence. First, officials need to find a new site after two-thirds of voters in the proposed location — a community called Key Haven — opposed the trial when asked on a nonbinding ballot measure earlier this month if it should move forward or not.

At the November, 2016, meeting of organic farmers in St. Louis, the National Organic Standards Board considered, again, whether the soil-free growing exception should continue. The board heard two days of public testimony on this and other topics. Not surprisingly, farmers with farms, who created the real organic movement, stood in defense of their principles. Then, a dirty war broke out.

(Beyond Pesticides, November 21, 2016) The potential benefits of “weeds” have long been ignored, but a new study attempts to quantify the benefits of all species within an agricultural system, including the undesirable ones. The study, Integrating Insect, Resistance, and Floral Resource Management in Weed Control Decision-Making, by Cornell University scientists, assesses and updates holistic integrated pest management practices. In a discussion with the Cornell Chronicle, lead author of the study, Antonio DiTommaso, Ph.D., states, “Managing crop pests without fully understanding the impacts of tactics –related to resistance and nontarget plants or insects– costs producers money.” The authors introduced a weed management decision framework that accounts for weed benefits and illustrates that by allowing low levels of weeds in a cropping system, a farmer can increase crop yields and provide numerous ecosystem services.

Concerns over the environmental and health impacts of the herbicide glyphosate have prompted many authorities (local and national) to introduce restrictions (including bans) on its use.

In this document, we list the restrictions on glyphosate (legal and voluntary) of which we are aware, as of December 2015. The list also includes some pesticide restrictions that, while not specific to glyphosate, effectively restrict its use.

This list has been compiled from information in the public domain and we provide links to the source where possible, but please note that the information may be out of date and the list could contain errors. We will update the list regularly and would welcome any corrections or additions. Please email pesticide-free@pan-uk.org to contact us.

Many organic brands were originally founded by individuals and families for all the right reasons, but at some point in their history, they were bought out by a major manufacturer like Kelloggs or Nestlé or Dean Foods.

Sometimes standards were maintained after the purchase; sometimes subtle shifts began to take place–in the ingredients, sources, quality, or business practices (e.g., when Dean Foods quietly rebranded “organic” Silk soymilk as “natural” to enable them to source non-organic soybeans).

Other organic brands were simply founded by a major food manufacturing corporation in an attempt to “get a piece of the organic consumer pie.”

"It is time to hold the sole U.S. manufacturer of PCBs accountable for the significant harm they have caused to our state," Ferguson said, noting that the chemicals continue to imperil the health of protected salmon and orcas despite the tens of millions of dollars Washington has spent to clean up the pollution. "Monsanto produced PCBs for decades while hiding what they knew about the toxic chemicals' harm to human health and the environment."

The suit arrives just days before Monsanto shareholders vote whether to accept a $57 billion buyout offer from Germany's Bayer. The extraordinary meeting of shareholders takes place just outside of St. Louis on Tuesday.

PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, were used in many industrial and commercial applications, including in paint, coolants, sealants and hydraulic fluids. Monsanto, based in St. Louis, produced them from 1935 until Congress banned them in 1979.

GMO-free: Yucatan, Campeche and QR to sign pact this week at COP13 in Cancun

CANCUN — The state governments of Yucatan, Quintana Roo and Campeche have pledged to make the Yucatan Peninsula a GMO-free region through the signing of a cooperative pact during the COP13 Global Biodiversity Summit, taking place in Cancun this week.

Commercial Approval of Engineered Bentgrass Given Despite Failed Efforts to Stop Its Spread From Old Experiment Plots

PORTLAND, Ore.— The Environmental Protection Agency released a final environmental impact statement today giving the green light to genetically engineered creeping bentgrass, a highly invasive grass genetically engineered by Monsanto and Scotts to withstand what would normally be a fatal dose of the herbicide glyphosate.

Decades-old outdoor experiments have proven the novel grass impossible to control, as it escaped from “controlled” plots and invaded irrigation ditches, river banks and the Crooked River National Grassland, crowding out native plants and the wildlife that depends on them. Despite more than a decade of efforts and millions of dollars, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Scotts and Monsanto have been unable to exterminate the escapes. Now USDA has granted the industry’s request that it relinquish any authority over the GE grass.

“USDA's approval of this genetically engineered grass is as dangerous as it is unlawful,” said George Kimbrell, a senior attorney for the Center for Food Safety. “The agency is giving Monsanto and Scotts a free pass for the harm their product has already caused farmers and the environment, and is irresponsibly gambling future harm on nothing more than their empty promises.”

“FDA knew it was reckless to approve the release of a novel species without first assessing the potential impacts. The agency didn’t do its homework so the local community spoke up and they had the law on their side,” said Jaydee Hanson, Senior Policy Analyst at the Center for Food Safety.

Missouri's largest peach farmer sues Monsanto over alleged damage from illegal herbicide use

The suit alleges that illegal spraying was a predictable consequence of the Xtend seed being released without intended complement of low-volatility dicamba. “The issue here is one of ‘foreseeability,’” said Randles. “It was entirely foreseeable that if Monsanto released the Xtend products onto the market that farmers would seek a way to protect those Xtend seeds from damage and they would do that by spraying dicamba.”

(Beyond Pesticides, December 7, 2016) Two national non-profit advocacy groups, Beyond Pesticides and Organic Consumers Association (OCA), today launched the Map of Local Pesticide Reform Policies, a resource for communities and activists that documents pesticide policies adopted by local communities to protect people, pollinators and the environment. The map spotlights over 115 communities in 21 states that have taken local action to protect their communities from the adverse effects of pesticides by substituting a range of alternative tactics, from eliminating highly toxic chemicals to the adoption of organic practices. Beyond Pesticides are inviting people across the country to sign a national petition in support of the transition to organic land management.

“The Map of Local Pesticide Reform Policies, a continuously updated resource, reflects the wave of change occurring nationwide as local and state policymakers take steps to provide protections to people and the environment that are not provided by federal policy,” said Drew Toher, public education associate for Beyond Pesticides. “The policies adopted so far reveal a strong desire by local governments to advance practices that promote nontoxic alternatives to the toxic weed- and pest-management practices increasingly seen as destructive to the health of humans and their environment.”

Detailed study of the glyphosate market in China illuminated by new report

Glyphosate witnessed the market downturn once again, with the price much lower than that in 2013 and 2014. Many Chinese companies temporally or completely stopped glyphosate production because of the low price as well as stricter environmental protection requirements.

The food industry in the US and around the world is scrambling to adapt to a younger generation’s appetite for fresher, healthier foods

“There used to be a slow change in how consumers behaved, but there’s a disruptive change among millennials,” according to Stanton. “Digital natives are nothing like their grandparents and not much like their own parents.”

A big factor is their unlimited access to huge amounts of information by way of the internet, he says. Millennials are exposed online to issues such as sustainable sourcing and the health effects of certain foods, and they are influenced by what their friends and public figures say on social media.

“They demand much more information about products, the cost and the materials involved,” says Stanton.

According to a survey from food and beverage market research firm Hartman Group, 30% of millennials said organic ingredients were “extremely important” compared with 22% of the older, baby boomer generation. They also favour healthy convenience foods, such as prepared grocery store meals and meal kit services, which send customers pre-cut and measured ingredients to make dishes at home.

(Beyond Pesticides, December 6, 2016) A new study released by researchers at the University of Washington, Seattle finds that exposure to organophosphate insecticides is associated with changes in oral bacterial diversity, particularly for exposed farmworkers. The study provides insight into the far-reaching changes pesticide exposure can cause to the human body, which are not captured by current risk assessment models used by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Although past research has investigated the impact of pesticide exposure on the gut microbiome, this is one of the first studies to look at oral bacterial diversity.

…

The impact of pesticides on the human microbiome is an area of growing research. In Beyond Pesticides’ recent issue of Pesticides and You, the book 10% Human was reviewed, highlighting the fact that only 10% of human cells are genetically human, and 90% microbial in origin. Reviewer Terry Shistar, PhD, writes, “Disturbing the microbiota can contribute to a whole host of ‘21st century diseases,’ including diabetes, obesity, food allergies, heart disease, antibiotic-resistant infections, cancer, asthma, autism, irritable bowel syndrome, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, celiac disease, inflammatory bowel disease, and more.”

Previous research on rats has found the widely used organophosphate insecticide chlorpyrifos caused significant disruptions in the microbiome. When exposed to chronic, low doses of the chemical, certain microbial populations flourish, while others decreas. A scientific review of glyphosate by a team of fourteen renown scientists finds that the action of glyphosate as an antibiotic could alter gut diversity, “which could favor the proliferation of pathogenic microbes in humans, farm animals, pets and other exposed vertebrates,” the authors state.

While AZM use stopped in 2013, there is still significant concern over the ability of a range of pesticides to alter the human microbiome. In addition to glyphosate, researchers have recently found that several other common herbicides have been linked to antibiotic resistance. It is critical that more research is conducted to understand the link between environmental exposure to pesticides and other toxicants, changes in the human microbiome, and the onset of disease.

US: Mid-South cotton growers are spraying Bt cotton with pesticides more and more every year

Mid-South cotton growers are overspraying Bt cotton more and more every year, says Arkansas Extension Cotton Specialist Bill Robertson, and “some technology traits are holding up better than others — but we’re having to overspray all technologies more now than we have in the past.

This week, international conservation and environmental leaders are calling on governments at the 2016 UN Convention on Biodiversity to establish a moratorium on the controversial genetic extinction technology called gene drives.

Gene drives, developed through new gene-editing techniques, are designed to force a particular genetically engineered trait to spread through an entire wild population – potentially changing entire species or even causing deliberate extinctions. The statement urges governments to put in place an urgent, global moratorium on the development and release of the new technology, which poses serious and potentially irreversible threats to biodiversity, as well as national sovereignty, peace, and food security.

(Beyond Pesticides, December 2, 2016) Last week, the Arkansas Plant Board voted 12-0 to push measures that would ban or limit the use of certain forms of the toxic herbicide dicamba in the state. The hearing was called to address proposals that the board released for public comment on September 30, such as banning certain formulations of dicamba outright, creating restrictions on the time of year that other formulations of the herbicide can be used, and creating buffer zones in certain situations. This decision comes on the heels of a newly registered formulation of dicamba by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and widespread reports of crop damage across the Midwest and Southeast due to the illegal use of dicamba before it was registered.

(Beyond Pesticides, November 28, 2016) Last week, a federal judge effectively rubber stamped U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) policies that allow seeds to be coated with bee-toxic pesticides known as neonicotinoids. These pesticides, persistent in water and soil, are associated with acute bee kills, widespread pollinator declines and environmental damage. The Judge’s Order was issued on Nov. 21 in the case of Anderson et al. v. McCarthy, No. 3:16-cv-00068-WHA (N.D. Cal.).

“It is astounding that a judge, EPA or anyone with any common sense would not regulate this type of toxic pesticide use, especially when the seed-coatings are so broadly applied and there is so much at risk. Study after study has shown that seeds coated with these chemicals are a major culprit in catastrophic bee-kills. Now more than ever our country’s beekeepers, environment and food system deserve protection from agrichemical interests, and it is EPA’s job to deliver it,” said Andrew Kimbrell, Director of Center for Food Safety.

Health Canada Proposes to Ban Most Uses of the Toxic Insecticide Imidacloprid

(Beyond Pesticides, November 29, 2016) Last week, Health Canada announced its intent to cancel nearly all uses of the neonicotinoid insecticide imidacloprid after determining that the chemical poses unacceptable risks to the environment. Although imidacloprid and other pesticides in the neonicotinoid chemical class are notorious for their harmful impact to pollinators, Health Canada’s decision to eliminate most uses of the chemical is based primarily on the danger it poses to aquatic insects. Environmental groups throughout the world are praising the proposal, but cautioning against the long, three to five year phase out period proposed by the agency. There is concern that the phase out will permit continued environmental damage, and provide time for other toxic insecticides with similar systemic properties to replace imidacloprid. Advocates are urging U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to complete its full assessment of imidacloprid and follow Canada’s lead in eliminating this toxic chemical.

Genetically modified pineapples that are pink on the inside are safe, according to FDA

On Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration ruled that Del Monte is authorized to sell genetically engineered pineapples which have pink flesh, NBC News reported. The modified fruits have a sweeter taste and a pinkish color thanks to lycopene, a colorful pigment naturally found in tomatoes and watermelon. They'll be grown in Costa Rica.

In the 57-point document drafted by Økologiplan Danmark, it is explained that the aim is to double the agricultural land cultivated with organic methods by 2020. The Organic Action Plan for Denmark explains that the land belonging to the government will be cultivated using organic and biodynamic methods, and independent, small-scale farmers will also receive the finances and support to transform their own crops to be 100% organic (livestock included). Money will also be allotted to developing new technologies and ideas capable of promoting growth.

As you know, the various testimonies, experts' and scientists' contributions provided the Judges with very dense information to process. In order to do exhaustive and thorough work that will be useful to civil society and will make international law progress, the Judges need extra time to deliver their legal opinion. The legal opinion will be announced in April 2017 instead of in December 2016 as previously mentioned.

(Beyond Pesticides, December 13, 2016) Net Loss, a new report released by the Center for Food Safety (CFS), indicates the use of neonicotinoid-coated seeds is exactly that, an economic drain for farmers that only results in the indiscriminate poisoning for non-target wildlife, such as pollinators. The report is a follow up to a 2014 report, Heavy Costs: Weighing the Value of Neonicotinoid Insecticides in Agriculture, which concluded that neonic seeds bring greater costs than benefits to farmers. Later that year, a study published by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which looks specifically at the economic value of neonic coated soybeans, made similar determinations –insecticide seed coating provide little or no overall benefit in controlling insects or improving yield or quality.

With increasing public scrutiny on the potential health harms of glyphosate, Monsanto is pulling out all the stops to exonerate its flagship herbicide — including attacking the credibility of scientists reviewing glyphosate for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Speak up! Sign the petition and join us in urging the agency to stand up to Monsanto — and follow independent science.

The glyphosate geeks are gathering in Washington this week. After a two-month delay, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is holding four days of meetings aimed at examining the evidence that does or does not tie the world’s most widely used herbicide — glyphosate — to cancer.

Scientists, activists and agricultural industry leaders are all expected to show up to either defend or attack the chemical that is currently at the center of international controversy. More than 250,000 public comments have been filed with the EPA ahead of the Dec. 13-16 meetings, and the agency is girding for more than 10 hours of personally delivered public comments before a specially appointed scientific advisory panel gets down to work.

Don: I feel very strongly that this is the greatest hoax that has ever been perpetuated in the history of man and I feel sure that, in years to come, we will look back in amazement at our blind stupidity. It has been all about failed promises and flawed science. It was sold to us on the basis that it would solve world hunger, help counter climate change and improve the finances of farmers. It has failed on every front.

…

Don: It has been a difficult piece of research to pursue and several of the labs I have enlisted have had to withdraw their services. They came under intense pressure due to their involvement. My research began with investigating a major increase in miscarriage in pigs, cattle, goats, sheep and horses. The owners of stillborn 4-million-dollar foals wanted answers. We checked nutrition and mycotoxins and other obvious things, but there were no answers. A vet friend was diligent and kept on looking. He decided to look at some tissue under an electron microscope in the search for physiological clues. He consistently found an entity that is smaller than a small virus. It was about 20 nanometers and it was definitely not a virus. He only ever found this entity in the placenta or amniotic fluid of an aborted fetus. He wondered if there was a link to the animal feed and he checked. Sure enough the Roundup Ready soybeans were just loaded with the stuff. About the same time, I was involved in researching an explosion in Goss's wilt in corn, in the Midwest. There were different symptoms than we had even seen before, and we checked the tissue with the electron microscope. It, too, was loaded with this entity and there was more of the entity wherever the new symptoms were most pronounced.

Don: According to new data released by highly credentialed scientist, Dr Anthony Samsel, they knew about it right back in 1981. It would be a good idea for your readers to check out the interview with this researcher on mercola.com. It's a real eye opener. The only reason the WHO report concluded that it was a “probable” rather than a definite carcinogen was because the research has been constantly stifled.

Seneff: “I collaborated with three other researchers to publish a new paper on glyphosate and ALS. I believe we have worked out a clear pathway by which glyphosate causes ALS, after several decades of low-dose exposure that eventually accumulates in muscles and motor neurons to ultimately result in catastrophic effects. It has to do mainly with glyphosate substituting for glycine by mistake during protein synthesis. I believe this pathological mechanism easily explains the strong correlations we're seeing with glyphosate usage on core crops and a long list of debilitating diseases currently alarmingly on the rise.”

New Study Shows Major Molecular Differences between GMO and Non-GMO Corn

“Our study clearly shows that the GM transformation process results in profound compositional differences in NK603, demonstrating that this GMO corn is not substantially equivalent to its non-GMO counterpart. The marked increase in putrescine and especially cadaverine is a concern since these substances are potentially toxic, being reported as enhancers of the effects of histamine, thus heightening allergic reactions, and both have been implicated in the formation of carcinogenic nitrosamines with nitrite in meat products. Our results call for a more thorough evaluation of the safety of NK603 corn consumption on a long-term basis.” Dr. Antoniou stated.

We speak with Shetterly about what she discovered while researching the pros and cons of GMOs, and what it's like for a woman to try to pierce the traditionally male-dominated field of scientific research.

CANCUN, MEXICO — This week, 196 countries meeting at the 2016 UN Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) Conference of the Parties made progress on the global governance and oversight of synthetic biology. Synthetic biology (syn bio) has become one of the most fiercely debated topics at the Biodiversity Convention, almost 7 years after civil society first brought the need for precaution and regulation of the new set of biotechnologies to this UN body.

During the 13th Conference of the Parties (COP 13) to the CBD, countries agreed to investigate how digital genetic sequences may be used to commit biopiracy and warned against a risky new genetic extinction technology called gene drives. They also agreed on a working definition of synthetic biology (2) and to support an ongoing expert group to move forward international discussions on the topic. However, this progress was undermined by a significant ‘move backwards’ in safety oversight and risk assessment when a key standing expert group expected to issue risk assessment guidelines for synthetic biology was dissolved.

“Syn bio was among the hottest topics on the negotiating table,” explains Jim Thomas of ETC Group, who sits on the CBD’s expert group on Synthetic Biology. “Governments now get it: they need to urgently grapple with how synthetic biology and other fast moving, risky technologies are threatening biodiversity, local economies and the rights of farmers and Indigenous Peoples.”

Perhaps you, like I, had high hopes for a more enlightened approach to GMOs when President Obama came into office. During his 2008 campaign, he had publicly called for labeling and good science. And boy did we need good science, especially when it came to informing US policy makers.

During the Reagan years, Vice President George HW Bush visited Monsanto headquarters and was recorded on video offering them help with getting their products through the government. “We’re in the de-reg business,” he told them.

When he became president, we realized the extent to which that was true. His Vice President, Dan Quayle, was put in charge of a high-level Competitiveness Council, charged with reducing US export deficits. For some reason, they believed that introducing GMOs would increase US exports and US domination in the trade of food. So on May 26th, 1992, in the Indian Treaty room in the White House, Vice President Quayle announced that they would avoid the unnecessary regulations and treat GMOs just like other foods. Three days later, the FDA policy was unveiled, claiming that “the agency is not aware of any information showing that the foods created by these new methods differ from other foods in any meaningful or uniform way.” On that basis, not a single safety study was required, and GMOs could go on the market without any labeling requirement.

Years later, when 44,000 FDA documents were forced to the public domain because of a lawsuit spearheaded by Steven Druker and the Alliance for Bio integrity, we learned that the entire policy was based on a fraudulent premise. Not only had the scientists working at the FDA come to a very different conclusion, warning about unique health dangers and recommending extensive tests, but the person in charge of GMO policy at the FDA was Michael Taylor, Monsanto’s former attorney, and later their vice president.

Cornucopia vigorously opposed the introduction of GMO alfalfa. We highlighted many of the problems with the GMO version of this perennial and important crop for farmers. Both organic and conventional farmers expressed considerable concern over Monsanto’s alfalfa creation. It’s interesting that it has thus far failed to meet the biotech giant’s expectations.

Fragments of GMO DNA were found in the brains, blood and liver of Wistar rats fed a GMO diet after 30, 60 and 90 days of feeding. Most disturbingly, higher levels were found as feeding duration increased, suggesting accumulation. Tests were only performed on brains, blood & liver tissue so the study does not rule out finding fragments of GMO DNA in other parts of the rats.

Spinning Food: How Food Industry Front Groups and Covert Communications are Shaping the Story of Food

Our new report, "Spinning food," investigates how Big Food and agrochemical corporations are deliberately misleading the public -- and reporters -- on facts about industrial agriculture and organic and sustainable food production.

Taking their cues from the tobacco industry, these companies have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in the past few years on stealth PR tactics, deploying over a dozen front groups to push coordinated messages attacking organic food production, defending pesticides and the routine use of antibiotics and promoting GMOs -- messages that are making their way into the pages of our largest media outlets.

The report shows how these companies are trying to preserve their markets and advance policy agendas by deploying front groups; targeting moms, attacking journalists and scientists; grooming third-party allies that pose as independent sources; producing advertising disguised as editorial content and using other covert social media tactics to influence public opinion and sway policymakers -- without most people realizing the story is being shaped behind the scenes to promote corporate interests.

This report aims to shed light on how the industrial food and agriculture sector is trying to defuse concerns about the real risks of chemical-intensive industrial agriculture and undermine public confidence in the benefits of organic food and diversified, ecological production systems. We hope this report helps reporters, policymakers, opinion leaders and the public bring increased scrutiny to the food industry’s messages and messengers. By revealing key groups and tactics used by industry, we also hope that it will help generate more balanced and accurate reporting on our food system.

Ib Borup Pedersen, a Pig Farmer in Denmark, discusses his experience of harm to his sows and piglets when fed GM soya and the direct correlation he sees between glyphosate and severe health effects. He is interviewed by Sam Burcher at the Tribunal Against Monsanto in the Hague on 16th October 2016.

You may not have heard of it, but GE grass has quite a horror-film backstory. Once destined for golf courses nationwide, Monsanto first petitioned USDA for approval in 2002. Scientists were very worried: like all GMOs, the GE grass could cross-pollinate with related wild species, and spread uncontrollably. Because their tiny seeds and even lighter pollen can be carried on the wind for many miles, and they have lots of relatives they can cross-pollinate, GE grasses are even more assured to spread and contaminate other plants than other GE crops, like GE corn or GE soy, are. And like all of Monsanto’s GE products, they were engineered with the sole purpose of selling more Roundup to douse on them, which has resulted in dramatic increases in the pesticides entering our waters and native ecosystems. So when the GE grass did escape, farmers and regulators would have a superweed to deal with, one that would require even more toxic herbicides to kill.

A groundbreaking new peer reviewed study has documented that Monsanto's Roundup Ready NK603 corn, which was approved in 2000, produces worrying levels of toxins caused by the process of genetic engineering. A total of 117 proteins and 91 small molecule biochemicals (metabolites) were found to be significantly altered in NK603 corn by the genetic modification transformation process. The new analysis used cutting-edge molecular profiling methods. The results of the analysis showed disturbances in energy utilization and oxidative stress (damage to cells and tissues by reactive oxygen) in the GMO corn. There were also, in the words of one of the scientists, Dr. Antoniou, “worryingly large increases” in substances called polyamines, which are linked to the formation of carcinogens, increase the severity of allergic reactions and are likely linked to liver and kidney damage. GMO corn is not substantially equivalent to non-GMO corn.

Growing of GM corn, rice and soybean will be banned, while illegal production and sales of GM crops and supply of their seeds will also be prohibited.

The new regulation also bans illegal production, processing, sale and imports of edible GM farm produce or edible farm products that contain GM ingredients. It requires all GM food be sold in a special zone, clearly indicated in stores.

"Thank you, Dr. Margulis, for speaking out frankly on this important topic. It seems clear to me that the synergistic toxicity of glyphosate in the food supply (from the pervasive herbicide, Roundup) and multiple ingredients in the vaccines (aluminum, mercury, glutamate, formaldehyde, etc.), as well as the Tylenol that’s often administered with the vaccines, are the main factors in the autism epidemic. It would be so easy to turn this epidemic around by switching to sustainable organic agriculture and cutting way back on the vaccine schedule. Furthermore, recent evidence from Zen Honeycutt of Moms Across America and from Anthony Samsel, a toxicologist, has shown that some vaccines, particularly MMR, are contaminated with glyphosate. This lends new meaning to the word “synergy.” Contamination is expected either from the gelatin sourced from pigs and cows fed heavy doses of GMO Roundup-Ready feed or the fetal bovine serum that the live virus is often grown on."

The problem responsible scientists are faced with right now is that the evidence is accumulating that the CDC’s childhood vaccine schedule is not scientifically-based. The medical doctors, academic researchers, citizen scientists, and concerned parents who are taking the time to read the science and educate themselves about what we know and what we don’t about vaccines are all coming to the same conclusion: something is very wrong with today’s childhood vaccine recommendations. Our current medical recommendations seem to be harming children’s bodies and their brains.

Let’s hear from a few of those on-the-ground medical doctors themselves. These are not crackpots. These are not crystal-slinging tree-hugging hippies. These are top doctors and thought leaders, physicians who care deeply about the health of our children and our nation. So what do they have to say?

Seneff: “Rosemary Mason is one of my personal heroes. She has been tirelessly fighting for regulations restricting glyphosate so far with little success. This is an interesting article with specific facts about what glyphosate has done to her nature reserve. I don't know when it was published, but it's timeless.”

A personal witness to the devastating demise of wild pollinators and other species as glyphosate herbicide residues increase in the environment

“For a decade, the fastest-growing part of Viking and Albert Lea Seed has been conventional non-GMO and organic seed,” Ehrhardt said.

“We support all streams of agriculture, but we don’t have the resources to develop traited seed and compete with Syngenta, Monsanto and Dow/DuPont. We do have the passion to develop and deliver the best conventional non-GMO hybrids, varieties and innovation to those farmers that need them.”

"Of this total, 404 were American studies and 83 were Chinese," he said. "The most important point was how we also showed there is a statistical link between the presence of conflicts of interest and a study that comes to a favourable conclusion for GMO crops. We thought we would find conflicts of interest, but we did not think we would find so many," noted Mr Guillemaud.

Someone is not thinking this through. A new tomato has been developed which kills the tomato fruit borer caterpillar that eats it. While this may seem like beneficial progress for farmers, this is completely absurd for human consumption.

A plant which kills life is not something that any parent wants to feed their child. A plant which has a caterpillar die within 24 hours is called poison, not food for our families.

The Bizarre History of How Corporate Food Industry Flooded Our Farmlands with GMOs - It's one elaborate con job.

It all started with a U.S. Supreme Court decision that allowed certain life forms to be considered private property in 1980, when the high court ruled in a 5–4 decision that scientist Ananda Chakrabarty could own the intellectual property rights to a genetically engineered oil-eating bacterium after the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office initially denied the claim on the grounds that living things “are not patentable subject matter.” The court contended that genetically engineered organisms were “manufactured” and therefore covered by patent law.

While the first biotech application to pass muster with the FDA came in 1982 in the form of a synthetic form of insulin produced by genetically modified bacteria, it would take another decade for the FDA to put its stamp of approval on the marketing of GMOs for food use.

The FDA official who was most responsible for that was Michael Taylor, a former attorney for the Monsanto Corp. of St. Louis. Taylor’s arrival on the scene was the result of a politico-economic policy, one that also began during Ronald Reagan’s presidency.

The first indication of this was the development of “a Coordinated Framework for the Regulation of Biotechnology to provide for the regulatory oversight of organisms derived through genetic engineering” by the federal government in 1986. The following year, according to the HuffPost Green, “then-Vice President George H. W. Bush visited a Monsanto lab for a photo op with the developers of Roundup Ready crops…. When Monsanto executives worried about the approval process for their new crops, Bush laughed and told them, ‘Call me. We’re in the dereg business. Maybe we can help.’”

Help he did, when five years later, as Reagan’s successor, he assigned his own veep, Dan Quayle, to get a “regulatory relief initiative” for GMO crops underway. At a press conference, Quayle, who headed what was known as the “Competitiveness Council,” touted biotech’s potential profitability “as long as we resist the spread of unnecessary regulations.” One way to do that was for the administration to appoint Taylor, who proceeded to have genetically engineered crops declared “the substantial equivalent” of conventional ones, therefore requiring neither safety testing or special labeling—a regulatory paradox, given that the same GMOs were considered to be substantially different enough to merit an actual patent.

All this was accomplished with very little general awareness of what was occurring at the time—as well as of its implications for food production. It did, however, arouse the attention of Steven M. Druker, a public interest attorney who ended up initiating legal action to have this FDA policy reversed. While that litigation ultimately was deflected, it did give Druker access to the innermost details of what had taken place in the form of 44,000 pages of documents, which he came to regard as “extensive evidence of an enormous, ongoing fraud,” one involving evasion of both laws and scientific standards that, as he recounted in his 2015 book, Altered Genes, Twisted Truths, had subjected the American people to “novel foods that were abnormally risky in the eyes of the agency’s own scientists.”

Druker also relied on sources with an inside knowledge of how GMOs came to be accepted with no safety testing, a major one being the biologist Philip Regal, who revealed to him how the interests of investors in the success of the new technology resulted in customary scientific caution being thrown to the winds. Contrary to initial assurances he had received, Regal told him, the attitude he heard expressed at a 1988 conference on the subject by both industry and government officials was, “if the American people want progress, they are going to have to be the guinea pigs.”

But first, the Environmental Protection Agency would have to approve the special blending of the two herbicides developed by Dow. Called Enlist Duo, the mix has been formulated not to drift over large areas as 2,4-D commonly does. It would thus reduce the risk of killing crops miles away. According to USDA estimates, the introduction of the new crops would mean the spraying of five to 13 times as much 2,4-D by the year 2020.

Meanwhile, Monsanto, the developer of Roundup Ready corn, is developing its own new generation of herbicide-resistant crops able to withstand a third weed killer.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine are assigned by Congress to provide policy guidance to the government. The group describes itself as “advisers to the nation.” The advice often comes through written reports from scientific committees organized by the group.

One of those committees, though, is facing questions about how its members were selected. The concerns focus on a panel studying biotechnology, a booming area of business, including in the food industry, and one of the most contentious scientific issues in Washington.

Critics say that several committee members have financial ties to biotech businesses that could color the panel’s report, expected to be published soon, potentially giving short shrift to health and environmental worries.

By the academies’ own account, two of the scientists already violate the group’s extensive conflict-of-interest policy.

Doctor Presents Damning Evidence: The Autism Epidemic Can No Longer Be Ignored! by Christian Bogner, MD

Glyphosate and Autism - Is glyphosate to blame for autism?

The result of this glyphosate injection via CDC scheduled vaccines is activation of neurons and inflammation. Not only are the toxins not being cleared, but glyphosate by itself causes neuronal activation along with glutamate. They both act as neurotransmitters. Glyphosate is a glycine mimetic, meaning it can act like a neurotransmitter by itself. High amounts of glutamate can hence activate brain cells.

Scientists Loved and Loathed by an Agrochemical Giant With corporate funding of research, “there’s no scientist who comes out of this unscathed.”

A review of Syngenta’s strategy shows that Dr. Cresswell’s experience fits in with practices used by American competitors like Monsanto and across the agrochemical industry. Scientists deliver outcomes favorable to companies, while university research departments court corporate support. Universities and regulators sacrifice full autonomy by signing confidentiality agreements. And academics sometimes double as paid consultants.

According to the latest figures, released this week by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, antibiotic sales for use on farm animals increased by 1 percent in 2015, compared to the previous year. The increase was slightly greater – 2 percent — for antibiotics used as human medicine.

Seneff: “It will be interesting to see who Trump appoints to head the CDC after Frieden, although this article is interesting at another level because it defends pain medications and criticizes Frieden for trying to curb the writing of prescriptions for opioid pain drugs. It points out that deaths due to opioids continued to rise even despite Frieden's efforts, and it claims that many people are in utter agony and must have their prescription pain killers or they may commit suicide. Nowhere is there any mention of an explanation for why so many people are in agony these days. I think the explanation is straightforward: glyphosate gets into the joints and bones and causes dysfunctional collagen, leading to injury and inflammation. Switching to a strict organic diet would be a much better solution than taking an opioid drug!”

The study, entitled ‘Human health implications of organic food and organic agriculture', was carried out by the European Parliament's independent Research Service and draws together existing scientific research into the differences between organic and non-organic food and farming. It is an overwhelming win for organic farming, finding that organic farming practices can help develop healthy food systems which are beneficial for public health.

To date, there have been very few studies exploring the benefits of organic food and farming on human health. While the authors agree that more research, in particular more long-term studies, are required to fully understand the evidence, the report states that early studies have found a number of benefits of organic food, including:

But Nielsen also created a separate category with its own, narrower criteria. For that category, market researchers took a closer look at ingredients, store placement (is it in the “Natural” aisle?), and the rest of the brand. Anything USDA-certified organic, for example, was in; anything with genetically modified organisms or artificial or synthetic ingredients was out. The growth in that narrower category was nearly triple the growth in the broader one, at 11.2 percent.

My comment to the FDA regarding their "redefining healthy" by nutritional content only.

"Healthy" food must not only be determined by nutritional content. That is an incomplete, inaccurate and irresponsible way to determine "healthy". We Moms Across America can see through this tactic and we are NOT BUYING IT!

We determine healthy to mean 100% natural, from nature, not a lab- NO GMOs, NO man made synthetic, harmful chemicals, and NO artificial dyes, preservatives or additives which have ever shown to cause short or long term harm.

By only using nutritional content to define "healthy", the FDA means to legally allow GMOs and harmful chemicals in "healthy food". This would support food companies who are being sued for "unhealthy" food which is labeled "healthy" from being liable.

It must be clarified that when the industry says a chemical is "not toxic" and therefore does not need to be tested or labeled and can be allowed in "healthy" food, they are using a loop hope in the testing process. "Toxic" according to industry means that it kills an animal in 4 days. We mothers are not feeding our child a food for only 4 days. We feed our children for the long term, and a small amount of a "non toxic" chemical can cause great "harm" over many years. "Harmful", meaning short or long term harm, is completely disregarded as a term in the food industry, and therefore harmful chemicals are allowed, even in "healthy" food. This is immoral.

We deserve to have food which does not have toxic or harmful chemicals for our children. We demand life long, long term testing showing blood analysis, full disclosure and final formulation testing of chemical products sprayed on our food ( not just the one "declared active chemical ingredient". We know that the current system is set up to allow food companies to add chemicals to our food, our to allow chemical residues from GMO and chemical farming, and to not be responsible for the impact on consumers.

The public should know that the FDA has falsely classified GMOs and pesticides/herbicides/fungicides under a PROCESS not as ADDITIVES so that the food companies do not have to label and safety test. We mothers know that "additives" are required to be labeled and safety tested. The food companies want to avoid testing and labeling, and the FDA allows them this lack of accountability. This does not create healthy food, this only creates wealth for the food companies.

It is unethical and irresponsible that the chemicals that the EPA and FDA allowed to be sprayed on our food and feed crops have never been proven safe to the EPA in their final formulation state. This is misleading to the American public. The FDA is responsible for ensuring that our food is safe, healthy and nutritious, not for protecting the profits of the chemical companies. We ask the FDA to have integrity and responsibility and to classify "healthy " as grown or raised naturally (in nature) not in a lab, fed or being Non GMO, Pesticide (including herbicides/fungicides) Free, low in sugar, sodium, no transfats, no MSG, no carrageenan, and free of other harmful additives/preservatives/dyes.Thank you,Zen HoneycuttExecutive Director, Moms Across America

Glyphosate has been found in vaccines by Drs. Stephanie Seneff and Anthony Samsel. So, for your information... (see note below)

Pro Vax or Anti Vax, we all have a right to know, the right to decide which medical procedures we want or don't want for ourselves and our children. We have a right to see the information on those inserts and the right to know that if we are damaged by the product, that we cannot sue the manufacturer.

Today is THE DAY!

Episode One will air tonight starting at 6pm PST! You will have 24hrs to view the entire episode. Today will feature the Godfather of the Vaccine Freedom Movement Dr. Andrew Wakefield, Dr. Gary Goldman and Dr. Toni Bark.

The Biggest Public Health Experiment...Ever - Your kids are already a part of the experiment...and you’re next.

For those of you following this thread, fyi, I asked Dr. Seneff recently why Glyphosate Six (Glyphosate in Vaccines) had not been published yet. It was expected to come out in October. She told me that it is still being reviewed, that it is very controversial. I'll post it when I get word of it's publication.

The chief executive officers of German chemical giant Bayer AG and U.S. seed behemoth Monsanto (MON), Werner Baumann and Hugh Grant, are in New York pressing their case with President-elect Donald Trump to approve the massive merger between the two entities and to tout the creation of U.S. jobs if the deal goes through, people with direct knowledge of the matter tell the FOX Business Network.

After more than a decade of unsuccessful efforts to eradicate the genetically modified grass it created and allowed to escape, lawn and garden giant Scotts Miracle-Gro now wants to step back and shift the burden to Oregonians.

Conagra made several other arguments against class certification, arguing that most consumers didn’t rely on the 100 percent natural claim to buy Wesson vegetable oils and that they didn’t expect “natural” to mean the produce was free of genetically engineered ingredients.

The amendment, filed by the Senate (upper house) in the course of ongoing adjustments of Polish seeding laws to EU directives, allows the government to issue a trade ban on GMO seeds on grounds of their unsuitability for Polish agriculture, threat to the health of people, animals and plants, and for environmental reasons.

Starting next month, producers need to indicate if there is any genetically modified DNA or protein within the food. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety unveiled the changes late in December saying that they are aimed at “beefing up consumers’ right to know.”

The funds will be used by the company, which specialises in the contract growing and sale of non-genetically modified grain varieties with special health and nutritional properties, to expand the markets for their niche high-value products in the US, Europe and Asia.

The significance of these findings of substantial non-equivalence, which was long expected, and proven in other ways in other studies, provides more evidence that the FDA is not doing their job to protect the American people and livestock. This evidence shows that the FDA should immediately put a moratorium on all GMOs until proven safe.

It is astonishing that the FDA has been bullied and/or bribed into overlooking the studies showing harm and have allowed GMO products in our food supply. Yet, they have: GMO products have expanded into corn, soy, sugar from sugar beets, cotton seed, canola, Hawaiian Papaya, some zucchini and yellow squash, potatoes, apples, pineapples, salmon, and soon, bananas. Hundreds of varieties of GMO wait in the pipeline.

(Beyond Pesticides, January 9, 2017) After the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its recent human health risk assessment for the organophosphate insecticide (OP) tetrachlorvinphos (TCVP) on December 21, 2016, the agency announced it was allowing the continued use of the neurotoxic chemical to which children are widely exposed through pets’ flea collars and other flea treatments. According to EPA, ” TCVP is used as a direct animal treatment to livestock (i.e., cattle, horses, poultry and swine) and their premises, in kennels, outdoors as a perimeter treatment, and as a flea treatment [including flea collars] on cats and dogs.”

In its announcement on January 4, 2017, EPA states, “We advise consumers to take certain precautions when handling TCVP products in residential areas. These precautions are listed on TCVP product labels, including:

On 5th of December 2016, I had opened a fresh ATI (Access to information) application with the government, this time with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, or CFIA, for results of all Canadian grown and imported foods, including plants, grains, vegetables, fruits, dairy, poultry, meat, oils or processed food tested from 1st Jan 2008 till date, for presence of glyphosate to be sent to me.

“We’ve never been against any of this technology,” said Michael K. Hansen, a senior staff scientist at Consumers Union. “We don’t say it’s inherently bad or these crops are inherently dangers. It’s just they raise safety issues, and there should be required safety assessments.”

While the gene-editing templates match a specific sequence, it is possible that the same sequence occurs elsewhere in the genome or they will match similar sequences, and the DNA will be sliced in those places, too, with unknown consequences. “They make it sound very exact,” Dr. Hansen said. “It will have off-target effects.”

Dr. Hansen said unregulated gene-edited crops could also create trade havoc if traces of them accidentally mixed into exports to countries that prohibited them.

More Evidence Neonics Inhibit Social Behavior and Pollination Skills in Bumblebees

(Beyond Pesticides, January 10, 2017) Exposure to neonicotinoid (neonic) insecticides leads to a decrease in pollination frequency and fewer social interactions in bumblebees, according to research published by scientists from Harvard University and University of California, Davis. The study, released last year but presented this week at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology’s annual meeting, underscores the need for regulators and policy makers to eliminate use of these chemicals, not only to protect honey bees, but also wild pollinators like the bumblebee.

After watching this episode you will understand why Trump has appointed this man to head the commission on vaccine safety. A quote from his WMP page...

"People ask me why are you doing this...this isn't what I wanted to do. I had a choice of either putting my head down and walking away from and pretending I didn't see it or getting involved...and I have taken those risks and I have endured what came along with it but, I've endured it happily because I believe if I can spare one kid from getting this injury...these companies are stealing that from them...that is assault and battery, it's child abuse, in some cases it's even worse. I feel like I didn't have any choice but to get involved with this fight...I'm going to fight it till the end, and I am not going to stand down, I am not going to give up. I'm going to fight for you, I'm going to fight for your children and I need your support because the forces I am up against are forces that have been able to compromise every major institution in our democracy, and the people who stand up against them get crushed but, I know how to fight them because I've spent a lifetime fighting big shots and fighting bullets...and fighting the greedy, greedy bullies and that's who we're dealing with today, people who have that errogance of power, people who believe they can get away with anything including destroying the lives of our children and I'm not going to let them do that and I'm going to fight till the last day of my life to the last bit of energy I have to make sure that we get justice for these children...produce a healthy generation of American children that doesn't have this epidemic of neurological and other injuries, and that we have good science, transparent science, a robust regulator that's independent from the industry that they're supposed to regulate and we may never have honest politicians in this country, they're always going to be compromised by money but we deserve good regulators, we deserve good science and we deserve healthy children and that's what I'm going to fight for...please give me your support..." https://worldmercuryproject.org/

Episode 3 now available

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. talks about Vaccine Court, (lawyers...no discovery), Simpsonwood (1991 secret meeting of CDC scientists and Pharma reps where they decided to cover up the data that vaccines were harming, mainstream media, .) Scott Miller, filmmaker, vaccines in the military, Gulf War Syndrome, Anthrax, 20 minutes of the film "VAXXED."

"I've spent my life working on energy issues, environmental issues and global warming and rivers, but I've taken a hiates to do just this issue because I cannot stand by and watch these children be poisoned, an entire generation of children being poisoned now...and we're going to take them on and beat themwe're going to sue the government, pharmaceutical companies...we're figuring out different way to litigate this..."

Wray said opponents to the release had “very good cause” to object not just because of the potentially negative impact to the environment and local species, but also because it’s essentially testing or experimentation on humans, too.

“These mosquitoes will survive without tetracycline,” Wray said. “We were very upset with the company and the FDA that they would feel like it’s okay to release a product, an exotic species that would spread its DNA into the wildlife population and pollute our indigenous mosquitoes, without answering many questions about the safety first.”

“We would like the American public to consider that health is, in fact, wealth. More important than big mergers and shareholder profits, is the health and future of our entire country. Without our health, we don’t have the ability to have anything else: good jobs, quality of life, good relationships, and a thriving economy. We hope Americans will see the incalculable value in organic food,” stated Zen Honeycutt, founder of Moms Across America.

“We don’t know how these organisms will interact with pollinators, soil systems, other organisms,” Dana Perls, food and technology campaigner for Friends of the Earth, tells The Atlantic. We also don’t know whether synthetic DNA will swap genes with wild counterparts or not.

As much as synbio fans would like this new technique to be seen as “natural,” other groups are lumping it in with GMO. The National Organic Standards Board has voted to prohibit foods produced using synthetic biology from the organic label, and Friends of the Earth calls synbio an “extreme form” of genetic engineering.

“We need to make sure it’s not going to do more harm than good,” says Perls.

Science of Food: A current perspective of GMOs and RoundUp - Part 1 - Dr. Lisa Julian Ph.D.

This metal chelating property of glyphosate means that it can interfere with the numerous essential biological processes that involve metals in plants, bacteria and humans, despite Monsanto’s initial claim of selectivity for a specific metalloprotein in the so-called shikimate pathway that does not exist in human cells. For example, glyphosate binds to the iron atom at the center of the CYP metalloproteins, which are responsible for the digestion and detoxification of nearly every substance we consume, from food to pharmaceutical drugs, and disrupts their normal functioning.

In addition, glyphosate is a powerful antibiotic, acting on the bacteria’s shikimate pathway, similar to how it acts as an herbicide in plants. We are just beginning to understand the crucial importance of the bacteria living in our bodies, now being called the human microbiome. Dr. Thierrry Vrain, former scientist for the Canadian government who recently spoke out on the danger of GMOs, describes how RoundUp affects the human microbiome in a letter to the Canadian Minister of Health: “We are vastly outnumbered, roughly 10 to one — one hundred trillion bacterial cells call our lower intestine home. They are forever sending signaling molecules to each other and to all human organs, particularly the brain. All animals depend on their symbiosis with these bacteria, and humans are no exception. They are the teachers of our immune system, they make the neurotransmitters for our brain, and have a strong connection to the heart and the whole digestive tract. … A recent review of the medical literature on celiac and other diseases shows the link to imbalances of the microbiome that are fully explained by the antibiotic properties of glyphosate.” Because glyphosate is being sprayed on non-organic wheat fields and other crops just days before harvesting for an earlier, easier and bigger harvest, it is likely that the heightened gluten sensitivity (and food allergies in general) that many people experience today is not actually due to the food itself, but rather due to the effects of toxic chemicals like RoundUp that bioaccumulate in humans and in the environment.

GM crops: WA Labor backflips on policy, will permit them to be grown - Western Australia

"There is not much we can do about it," Mr Murray said.

"We understand very clearly that GM is in the ground and very hard to remove."Mr Murray said Labor would instead focus on "protecting non-GM farmers and the community from GM contamination" and urge the Federal Government to drive "proper food labelling laws".

Farmers welcome move but Greens decry shift as 'giving up'

But the Greens, who have long voiced health concerns over GM crops, said Labor was wrong to decide they could not be stopped.

"Obviously there are some difficulties in cleaning up but to just give up, throw up your hands and allow any GM to be grown is the wrong approach," Greens MP Lynn MacLaren said.

Dow Chemical Wants Farmers to Keep Using a Pesticide Linked to Autism and ADHD

Public health advocates have been calling on the EPA to ban the pesticide for years. Four months before the report came out, a group of 47 scientists and doctors with expertise in children’s brain development, including the director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, issued a grave warning that toxic chemicals in the environment were increasing children’s risks of developing behavioral, cognitive, and social disorders and contributing to the rise in cases of autism and ADHD. The TENDR statement, as it was called, included a list of the worst neurotoxins and amounted to a desperate plea for immediate action. Organophosphate pesticides, the class of chemical to which chlorpyrifos belongs, was at the top of the list.

In today's episode, Will tells the story of the beauty and benefits of regenerative agriculture. Not only will you be charmed by his southern drawl but you will also come to understand how and why he transitioned to regenerative agriculture and how you can support this movement. It begins with knowing your farmer and proceeds with making conscious decisions about what you put on your plate. A healthy diet for people begins with a healthy environment on the farm where the food was cultivated and raised.

Farmers, certifiers, and scientists collaborated to create the new standard, which could impact both consumers and the industry.

The new standard addresses a wide variety of practices, from forage protocol (exactly what grassfed cows can and cannot eat) and rules for grazing and confinement to animal health and welfare requirements like maintaining a “herd health plan” in consultation with a veterinarian. It addresses sustainability, too, requiring a “written pasture management and grazing plan that supports biological diversity, natural resources, and soil fertility,” while also giving farmers some flexibility on all points to account for impediments like weather that may affect access to pasture.

Producers do not have to be certified organic in order to receive the AGA grassfed dairy certification. Although Siemon said that “it’s a natural progression for an organic dairy farmer” and that almost all grassfed dairy farms that have joined Organic Valley’s network were operating as organic dairy farms before.

“With the new anti-environmental Trump Administration coming in, we believe forests and the climate are going to be under attack,” explained Anne Petermann, Executive Director of Global Justice Ecology Project and International Coordinator for the Campaign to STOP GE Trees. “We expect that Trump’s USDA pick will be even worse than Obama’s. This makes the looming threat from ArborGen’s 2011 request to the USDA to sell genetically engineered eucalyptus trees even more serious. These GE trees are extremely dangerous to forests, communities and the climate, yet the USDA and ArborGen remain secret about their status.”

Petermann added, “Luke Moriarty, the CEO of ArborGen investor Rubicon, called ArborGen ‘the Monsanto of the forestry world,’ yet to date, ArborGen has not commercially sold a single GE tree. The New Zealand Herald, on the other hand, called ArborGen ‘a huge disappointment’ that is still trying to break even 15 years after it was formed.” [4] Then why has the USDA not already rejected them? How will the new Trump pick impact them? The public has the right to know.

Once again, the assessments did not consider risks from exposures to contaminated water, guttation droplets, or soil, with EPA stating that, “The Agency lacks information to understand the relative importance of these other routes of exposures and/or to quantify potential risks from these other routes, and as such, they are not quantitatively assessed.” Similarly, contaminated dust, produced as a result of the planting of coated seeds, was acknowledged by the agency as a potential source of exposure and risk, as well as the cause of several bee kill incidents. However, once again the agency did not conduct an assessment for this exposure, citing stakeholder work on best management practices to reduce dust.

Now CBC reports, "The Canadian Food Inspection Agency fast-tracked safety tests on eggs from genetically modified salmon in order to hit an export deadline last year, according to internal government documents. [More than 600 pages of] documents obtained under Access to Information by researcher Ken Rubin and shared with CBC News show that veterinarians working in Prince Edward Island and other inspection offices of the CFIA were under 'pressure' to get the inspections for diseases and viruses done quickly. At one point, documents suggest the CFIA got permission to jump the queue over other pending tests to speed up the process and sent batches of eggs to three federal labs across the country for testing."

In A Trial Against Protesters, The State Of Iowa Seeks Unusual Ban On First Amendment Defense

The bigger decision will be made before the trial: Could First Amendment arguments and evidence be precluded from a trial involving a protest? "I've been doing protest demonstration cases for 25 years, and the First Amendment is always an issue" says Martin Stolar, a New York City criminal defense who tried cases involving Occupy Wall Street and who is not involved in the Talen/Cordaro case. "It's pretty outrageous that they are trying to remove it in this case."

Documentary about the how gmo food (glyphosate) was created and the concerns to health of humans, animals and our environment. Scientists are speaking out. If you don’t know what gmo food is, you must watch this film.

Mike Papantonio takes on Monsanto over its Round-Up weed killer which contains a herbicide known as glyphosate, a compound found to be carcinogenic by the World Health Organization in 2015 and speaks with attorney, Robin Greenwald, about her lawsuit against Monsanto and the EPA’s role in providing cover for the agro-chemical giant for years.

“Right now our focus is on people who use Roundup in the application process, so that would be landscapers, farm workers, farmers, individuals who use it for home use…”

Dr. P: I'm Dr. Dan Pompa, I really became known for my cellular detox work which really came out of my own story, so from pain to purpose is what I love to say and now I'm blessed to train doctors around the country to do what I do.

Dr. G: So Dan you've had quite a journey in your life that's led you where you are today, can you give us your background and what brought you into your interest in being able to do detox and detox the body from things like vaccines.

Dr. P: Yea, you know I mean it wasn't something that I sat down and thought here's a great career, right I'm just gonna to do cellular detox work. No, it really came out of my own story as you said, I really at the best shape of my life, honestly, we just had two boys, life couldn't be better, a thriving practice at the time and all of a sudden fatigue out of nowhere and I guess if it was just that it would have been simple but it went from fatigue to anxiety, sleep problems, couldn't get to sleep, wake up and I couldn't get back to sleep, debilitating anxiety even at that time, and then I became allergic to everything I ate, so like many other people I'm sure even watching this it was like this food and that food and then I became chemically sensitive where I couldn't even leave my environment without getting sick so life as I knew it came to a screeching halt, I mean my hair got thin, I mean I wasn't healing normally, I couldn't even adapt to even normal stresses like sound, let alone a crying baby where my wife would have to take the child and go and, my adrenals were shot, my thyroid was shot, but when I would address those things it would seem like some things would get better but other things not so well, they would get worse. So life as I knew it changed.

Dr. G: It seems somewhat explicable, it's like where did this come from.

Dr. P: I didn't know at the time and I went from being very healthy, I was in the best shape of my life and two young kids as I said and all of a sudden this comes out of no where. Years later, after suffering for many years, I realized the source which was mercury.

Dr. G: How did you finally figure out that you had mercury toxicity that was causing all these really strange symptoms in your body?

Dr. P: After some years of researching I mean when you can't sleep in the middle of the night you know you get some of your best work done and by the way I was like I was dyslexic as a child so I had this photographic very odd good memory that I developed through it I'm sure, but that went to waste in my illness. I started not being able to do that but at times it would come and I would be able to learn and read research. I came across Mad Hatters disease and if you recall what that is but people making felt hats they used mercury to attenuate molds and other things that would happen in the felt and they became known as Mad Hatters. Well that was me, I okay this is me, I went down I got a blood test and it came out negative. I was devastated. A year or so later I became friends with an endocrinologist Brian... great guy, and I knew my thyroid... wasn't working well, and body temperatures were so low and he said you know Dan I think you have mercury poisoning, just based on your body temperatures, the hormone disregulation that you have. I said I thought so too. I got tested, I was negative. He said what test did you do. I said a blood test. That was that was the wrong test. That's good for acute mercury poisoning but not so good for chronic. I think you have chronic poisoning. Where do you think I got it. He said did you have any dental work done around the time this happened and I thought I might because I had a gold filling put in and they drilled out an amalgam filling, I still had six. By the way, the amalgam fillings fifty percent mercury in the filling and so I said well, I called my best friend who actually did the work, got the date, it was days after that actually my symptoms started. I just never put it together, I thought it was the anestetic, who knows but that's when it started and then it just built from there. In no doubt I had been accumulating it through out my life time through vaccinations, my father slathered me in Merthiolate. Another source was saline solution was the number one adult source . It was actually Thimerosal was put in the saline solution all the way through 70's, 80's, 90's, then it was outlawed.

Dr. G: Wow, so the mercury poisoning that you experienced, which created all these debilitating things for you personally, is this going on with people who are getting vaccinated .. with vaccines that contain Thimerosal?

Dr. P: Oh, there's no dought, I said I got to experience what a damaged child on the autism spectrum would see, except my brain was already developed but literally not dealing with sound, you know the sensitivities that I developed, just the inability even to look people in the eyes, that shyness, I found out later is called Mercurialism, where literally you just lose this socialibility. I didn't want to leave my home, trust me.

Dr. G: Mercurialism, I've never heard that before.

Dr. P: Yea, it's literally known as this shyness, ...I wouldn't call myself an extrovert like my wife but I definitely was more outgoing and I went from that to where I couldn't even look people in the eye, I didn't even want to have social interaction, I was autistic in an adult body.

Dr. G: ...you felt that kind of withdrawal .. where you don't want to be out and sounds can bother you, etc. Now that you discovered this, I guess in once sense it's like good at least there's an explanation for what I'm experiencing.

Dr. P: Yea, exactly I just got goosebumps right now, it's certain things in your story, it just brings you back but through it my wife had said look God is not only going to help you and take you through this but He's going to take a message to the world through you and at that time, ...because at that time I didn't see that, I couldn't see that. At that time, it was I didn't want to live, honestly I didn't and that was that bad. I couldn't imagine living life like that, I would have rather have died and there was times, believe me, I thought that was the easy way and she would remind me of that and honestly I would get angry at her because I would think if you only knew what I felt like, I'd get angry because of her hope that she had but that came to fruition. I came through it, I learned what I learned ... what I teach today it came out of that pain. So my mantra has become from pain to purpose.

Dr. G: And so now what you have figured out is how to detox a body that has been poisoned with heavy metals that vaccines contain because you know we spend a lot of time in this program in Vaccines Revealed talking about damage, how the damage occurs, mercury, aluminum, etc. the combination of these things, how the body responds to it, different milestones in development... All of these things have been discussed but really it's very critical because it might be one thing for people to say wow glad I found out about this in time I'm not vaccinating my kids but the majority of people out there have been vaccinated and kids have been vaccinated and they're probably experiencing these vague symptoms like you are describing. It's one thing when you have a very overt, wow, immediate cause and effect, vaccine reaction but it's another thing when it's a little bit more insidious a little more subtle and then you start, people try to tell you you're crazy and they think there's something psychologically wrong with you as compared to biologically wrong with you so in this case now I think it's critical that we talk about the fact that there's hope for people who have been damaged, that they can somehow detox these heavy metals, these poisons or toxins out of their body so what exactly happens kind of on the cellular level and then what is the processes that you recommend so that people can improve themselves?

Dr. P: You said a lot of amazing things there, I'm coming out of my skin because number one just because you don't get damage after vaccination does not mean that you're not damaged. We take these kids, they didn't end up on the autism spectrum but if we understand what's happening right now with autoimmune most of it is undiagnosed and most people have it at some level. And one autoimmune builds on another. This is a the real epidemic. These kids that are being vaccinated today, when you talk about it, there are some generational things that are happening, right, but we are having an explosion yes of autism related disorders which by the way is considered autoimmune but, we're having all these children and people later that are developing autoimmune conditions. We, our generation, didn't get nearly the vaccinations, right, but yet in the 30's, and 40's and 50's we're seeing an explosion of autoimmune.

Look, they're toxic but they stimulate the wrong immune system, they stimulate and activate a type two reaction (or "type of reaction" a little inaudible), which is an emergency reaction so with every vaccine you're training the body to over react into autoimmune, not to mention the nuerotoxins. You know all of these things can turn on genes of autoimmune, we all have them, so we don't get the condition because you have the gene, you get the condition because the gene is turned off. So look the bottom line is this you know that's a big thing that we have to understand is that people have been conditioned to think that we never thought it was the bio accumulation of toxins and stressors to our lifetime through the vaccines, the flu shots, whatever it is, that's one thing I have a pet peev of detox okay, because today I think people realize the need for the detox and it's in vogue, if you will, but most people do it wrong so I was getting my life back you know it was years and understanding and researching really what detox is to what I teach today. It has to be a cellular detox.You have to go up to the level of the cell to really that's where true detox is. So I became known what I call is true cell detox because that's what it is. So I have nothing against colon cleanses, there's a lot of different things, the liver cleanse, this ten day cleanse, I mean there all over the market but, their fine, I have nothing against those detoxes but the point is, is that they're down stream from where the real problem is and that's the cell so real detox you have to getthe cell doing what the cell does naturally.

Dr. G: So you're saying that it benefits these organ detoxes but you're saying that it's got to get down to a cellular level (Dr. P: Absolutely) in order for it to truly detox these poisons or toxins out of the system.

Dr. P: When you look at what was damaged on me, when you look at what's damaged in an autistic child, it's a cellular issue. Yes certain genes get turned on even because the cell itself is not able to get rid of the toxins that are now accumulating in the cell turning on bad genes but when the cell membrane gets damaged the mitochondria gets damaged. These things are all needed in the normal process of a cell getting rid of toxins. That's what you have to fix, so I don't care how much of these herbals that you take, things like Chlorella, they're actually weak binders anyway. You have to get the cell doing what it should be doing, that's real detox and that happens in three phases. We do a prepatory phase where we prepare the down stream pathways like the gut, the liver, the kidneys and the cell and then we have to use what I like to call true binders to make sure that the toxins once the cell starts actually up regulating its detox, that we bring the toxins all the way out of the body. That's real detox. So we have a prep phase, we have a body phase and we ultimately have a brain phase where we have to go deep enough with the cellular detox to where it matters. I got my life back by detoxing my brain and that's the key, that's what people are missing. You know it's that deep level brain detox that really is how we're going to change and make a difference in all those conditions, not just autism.

.Dr. G: So basically the problem is when we say ...aluminum, mercury, they have these adverse affects and it can lead to really devastating your health and your life moving forward but, the key is so you're saying if we going to get, reverse that process to whatever degree it can be reversed, it's a matter that this stuff is in the cells and that's where you have to take it out and mercury does accumulate in the brain (Dr. P: Absolutely), so it's a matter of saying hey, we've got to get this stuff out of the body and use the term binder so it's a matter of having things that can get to the cell, (Dr. P: Absolutely) bind with the heavy metal and pull it out and take it out of the body.

Dr. P: There's been some amazing breakthroughs in this and that we have some things that are true binders and that's key because most of the herbals are not true binders. They're not but they're able to cross into these membranes, the cell membranes as well as the blood brain barrier and actually be able to be a vehicle that doesn't let go of something like a heavy metal is very difficult to remove and make sure it moves all the way out of the body so when you put it in a system, what I call a true cellular detox, you know that's the magic, I mean that's really how you get people's lives back and you know I have to, you know I said that there's something happening today. The need to get into the brain into that deeper tissue is key. We were exposed, we grew up in the mercury generation. You know I jokingly said my father slathered me in Merthiolate which actually contained mercury, remember that stuff, that was mercury right there, the Mercurochrome and then the contact lens fluids. Thimerosal was in more than that and these were just some of the examples. Thimerosal has ethyl mercury that stuff goes right into the brain and I'm sure some of your folks have talked about that but you know then the Lead generation. We grew up with Lead gasoline. I mean it's like Lead in all the paint. Guess where most of it went, in the bones of our parents, guess what, when mom is pregnant, out comes the Lead. During pregnancy it's natural to lose bone but they lose Lead and guess what, it is going into the children. There's a study, called the Duress study where they looked at the number of fillings in mom's mouth, was proportional to how much mercury they were finding on autopsies in baby's brains. So got mom's amalgam mercury, then the Lead. So out of mom comes the Lead into the baby. That was our generation.

Today, there's a new problem, Glyphosate. Glyphosate is the ingredient in Roundup in so many different herbicides today and pesticides . So Glyphosate according to studies, Stephanie Seneff, I think you're interviewing her, right? She was one of the first to show that Glyphosate allows these nuerotoxins like mercury and Lead to cross deeper into the brain.

Dr. G: So basically Glyphosate which is almost ubiquitous now, if you're not eating organic stuff, if you have gmo foods, right, it's almost like saying it's opening the door saying come on in. (Dr. P: Oh, yea.) So the body doesn't it typically trys to keeps this stuff out, but your saying that this chemical that's sprayed all over the place is something that invites in these toxins, so it amplifies the affect.

Dr. P: Absolutely. It's breaking down the gut barrier, so it's allowing more toxins to cross the gut, but remember the gut barrier is very similar to the blood brain barrier. It's opening that up and it's allowing these toxins to cross deeper Not to mention it's creating disruption in the microbiome, the good bacteria, which is affecting detox, hormones, neurotransmitters, I mean the whole thing, the immune system, but, so I mean it is a three prong destruction that's occurring, I mean it's so much damage at the cellular level.

Dr. G: So we kind of have this perfect toxic storm in today's world so, and you could see any one of these things, vaccination could be just in and of itself a bad thing, but we take vaccines, you take the mom's amalgam, you take the Glyphosate that's being ingested and you start putting all these things together and you're whipping up quite a cocktail here that our gnome has no reference point for it to even try to adapt to it.

Dr. P: It's a perfect storm ... you had three storms come together and catastrophic storm occurs, right, that's what's happening. So you know I think it's going to be very difficult ever to say vaccines is the cause of autism. Well look, you know we could debate that til the cow's come home but when we look at what's happening, we know that it's a part of it, but it's these perfect storms are happening.

Hepatitis B vaccine, it has 200 times the amount of aluminum that they consider safe when they give a baby an IV, so what's the difference, what's the difference, we're injecting in IV, so why's your standard one thing here and we're giving it 200 times more in a vaccination?

I mean, so point is, is this amount of nuerotoxins with something that already in utero they're being exposed to Glyphosate, you know we find it in mother's breast milk, opening up the blood brain barrier, allowing these nuerotoxins to cross in. When you look at a statistic that possibly if things remain the same by 2032, one out of two kids are going to be on the autism spectrum. It seems impossible until you explain this, you know this perfect storm, that's happening

Dr. G: That's the way the graph is charting, right?

Dr. P: That's the graph it's charting, maybe it's going to get better, who knows, but when I heard that statistic even myself I said wait a minute that sounds hard to believe but when you think about what's happening with the perfect storm with this generation you say, I could see it.

Dr. G: I know you developed detox protocols that now there's hundreds of providers throughout the world that are incorporating, but somebody who's watching this at home right now whose been vaccinated, my kids been vaccinated, I'm relating to what your saying, what types of actions can they take to try to remedy their situation?

Dr. P: You know one of the game changers for me if you understand when I started researching the cellular membrane it's so many things happened. You know the cell membrane is key. I really think that Bruce Lipton really identified that life happens on the membrane, you know everything happens on the membrane. Intelligence resides in this membrane (Dr. G: There's a brain in the membrane.) Right, if you understand, I don't want to bore people with too much science but if it's literally how our nerve system comes from a membrane and there lies the intelligence but that membrane allows the good stuff into the cell but it also when it's functioning properly allows the toxins to come out. When that gets compromised, I think most people watching has heard inflammation is the cause of everything. I mean right but we're not talking about inflammation of your sore shoulder, but inflammation of every cell. That membrane becomes inflamed. Now it doesn't function the way it should. Bad genes get turned on, to turn them off we have to fix the membrane. Bruce Lipton that's a lot of his work.

To detox, if you don't fix that membrane the cell doesn't detox so, I developed something I call my five R's on how to fix a cell. It became a road map that I teach practitioners on what to do to fix a cell. R number 2 is regenerating that cell membrane. Fats are key, everybody should be paying attention to fats. When I started increasing fats in my diet, even real butter, grass fed butter, Arachidonic acid is a fat that I think most people think that's a bad one right, well we know it stabilizes the membrane. So you take something like Arachidonic acid and many parents say they are just loading up their child on fish oil and they are forgetting about if you don't have enough Arachidonic acid, fish oil actually becomes dangerous. So increasing some of these fats from grass fed meats and actually butter, could really be a game changer.

Today what we have happening in the autistic world, even the general population that eats healthy, they are taking fish oils and they're creating something called Omega 3 dominance. So imagine, so we're doing a few things wrong here. Like everyone's taking probiotic ... bacteria creating disbiosis. Everybody's taking fish oils thinking this is great creating something called Omega 3 dominance. So the point is that increase your good fats. Don't be afraid of the saturated fats, they help stabilize the membrane to. Cholesterol, there's a fat that people fear I would think.

Dr. G: Many times practitioners give drugs to try to inhibit the production of it.

Dr. P: Absolutely, so these fats from real foods, grass fed foods, grass fed butters, fantastic. You know I'm not against fish oil, but I like it in fish and if you get a fish oil, be selective and, we rotate those in. We don't keep people on them because you know we're searching for certain ratios. So diet does play a role, even putting people into ketosis is key. We know ketones, by the way they are a product of fat matabolism so as you break fat down you make something called ketones, they change the brain, they can heal the brain, that's what the science shows, they can even turn off bad genes. So changing people and getting their cells to burn fat is a majority energy source is called ketosis and that can also be a really healing property from those ketones.

Dr. G: So if I'm a mom right now and I want to try and help my kids in this way one thing that I can do is get butter from grass fed cows (Dr. P: Absolutely.) meat from grass fed cows and get more natural sources such as some of these things fish oil as compared to having them extracted. (Dr. P: Absolutely.) and put that together that these can help heal and regenerate and detox.

Dr. P: And don't forget ... we like coconut oil, we like medium chain fats, olive oils, the mono fat, you know get a variety of...but adding these fats into the diet sounds like an obvious thing or a small thing, but it really is key to fixing the membrane and fixing this brain all at the same time.

Dr. G: Anything else that you would give advice for to somebody whose watching .. right in the household I can do this which would help?

Dr. P: Well removing source, remember I said I have the 5 R's. R number one is remove the sources, obviously remove the sources from the brain.

Dr. G: So eat non gmo foods so you're not getting the Glyphosate?

Dr. P: Right, but remove the sources from your life. Look at the cleaning supplies that your using. It's so easy to do it natural these days. I mean you can make your own for goodness sake, but you know we're eating organic, especially in things like grains if you're going to eat grains because they're sprayed with that Glyphosate, all the grains are sprayed unless your 100 percent. Grain, by the way taking grains away is another good tip because a fast way to down regulate cellular inflammation is to control glucose and insulin. Taking grains away actually can do that faster, believe it our not, even than sugar . It just seems to take more of the inflammation out faster. Then you should take sugars away too, processed sugar, but grains have a big impact because there's a lot of things in grains, not just gluten, that is leaking across a leaky gut that is driving inflammation and autoimmune.

Dr. G: Well I think those are some great advice and I'm sure people can search online about getting deeper into some of these things but like you said removing things that are facilitating the problems that you have and adding some things like healthy fats could make a big difference in people's lives.

Summary: Synthetic chemicals commonly found in insecticides and garden products bind to the receptors that govern our biological clocks researchers have found.

The current research focuses on two chemicals, carbaryl, the third most widely used insecticide in the U.S. but which is illegal in several countries, and carbofuran, the most toxic carbamate insecticide, which has been banned for applications on food crops for human consumption since 2009. It is still used in many countries, including Mexico and traces persist in food, plants and wildlife.

Seneff: “I will be doing a live interview with Rochelle McLaughlin on Feb 2. at 2 p.m. Pacific time. A chance to learn about why glyphosate's correlations with multiple chronic diseases make sense from a causality standpoint.”

Seneff: “New article looks in depth at the issues with transgenic soy engineered to produce growth hormones - and other considerations on why GMO Roundup Ready soy might not be such a good food for infants, in any case.”

Soy-based infant formulas have been consumed in the United States since 1909, and currently constitute a significant portion of the infant formula market. There are efforts underway to generate genetically modified soybeans that produce therapeutic agents of interest with the intent to deliver those agents in a soy-based infant formula platform. The threefold purpose of this review article is to first discuss the pros and cons of soy-based infant formulas, then present testable hypotheses to discern the suitability of a soy platform for drug delivery in babies, and finally start a discussion to inform public policy on this important area of infant nutrition.

With 511 test results transcribed, the story only gets worse. Canadian food safety has gone out of the window, and is being followed closely by USA. In fact, the study is so shoddy that the largest portion of the foods tested do not even have the country of origin mentioned. Welcome the age of free poisoning instead of free trade.

Argentinian law clearly states that authorizations for chemicals should not be granted without knowing the full environmental and health effects of the chemical. Canda concluded that “this is clearly not the case with glyphosate herbicides, the science has not been comprehensive enough.”

The Effect of Glyphosate on Tree Roots - No sources. Sources requested from author.

Glyphosate also reduces the general cold hardiness of trees and their ability to survive extended dry spells, effects that can last longer than two years, notes the Permaculture College of Australia. The compound may also have subtle effects on fruit-bearing trees. Investigators at Cornell University found that using glyphosate to control weeds under apple trees affected the quality of the fruit, causing harvested apples to develop brown internal areas and spoil quickly in storage.

Researchers transforming animals with the latest genome-engineering tools may be disappointed by draft rules released by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on 18 January — two days before US President Barack Obama leaves office. It is not clear how the administration of incoming president Donald Trump will carry the proposals forward, however.

Moms Across America (Zen will be speaking at the Monsanto Shareholders 2017 meeting.)

We are a national coalition of unstopable moms. Our motto is empowered moms, healthy kids and we're committed to empowering millions to educate themselves about gmo's and related pesticides, to get them labelled and offer gmo free and organic solutions. (We have male members also.) Please join us in educating the world about gmo's.

Here is a 30 minute talk that Zen Honeycutt of Moms Across America gave in Sydney, Australia in March 2015. Here are a couple of quotes:

"I'm not a scientist and I'm not a doctor. I'm an expert Mom. I'm the expert of my children. You're your children's expert. If you're not a parent, you are your expert."

"A concerned Mom does better research than the FBI."

"Gmo's are a chemical delivery system to humans."

"Upstate New York tested .33 for Glyphosate in the water - 3X higher than allowed in Europe."

"Glyphosate stays viable in dark salty water for up to 351 days, does not biodegrade like they say it does, this has been proven so when I went in front of the Monsanto Shareholder meeting this past January and spoke to them about their products harming our children on behalf of mothers.

I said to them what is in our womb? Dark salty water and what is the size of a fetus? It's the size of a shrimp. You must be responsible for the contamination of our children and the pollution of our planet and I believe many of them got it."

Featuring the voice of Mary-Louise Parker as the influential writer and scientist, Rachel Carson is an intimate portrait of the woman whose groundbreaking books revolutionized our relationship to the natural world. When Silent Spring was published in September 1962 it became an instant bestseller and would go on to spark dramatic changes in the way the government regulated pesticides. Drawn from Carson’s own writings, letters and recent scholarship, the film illuminates both the public and private life of the soft-spoken, shy scientist who launched the modern environmental movement.

“This parathion belongs to the same family of nerve gases that the Germans used in their genocidal murder of Jews.”

Mitra: “Evaggelos Vallianatos, retired scientist from EPA wrote this essay. I have interviewed him earlier, about the corruption within EPA. I am scheduled to speak with him again next week, regarding Trump's gag order with EPA. Dr. Vallianatos thinks the current gag order may be to intimidate and frighten the EPA staff, not because EPA is corrupt (which it mostly is), but perhaps because it is not corrupt enough to fast track nasty chemicals.

By Evaggelos Vallianatos, Scholar with a doctorate in history and long experience in environmental regulation and politics.

The recent decision of the EPA to back away from modest restrictions governing the use in the United States of the bee killer neonicotinoid insecticides is, I suspect, simply a reaction to the coming of the Donald Trump administration to power. Rather than wait for the new Trump administrator, Scott Pruitt, to nullify a bee-protective policy, the Obama EPA blessed business as usual against honeybees.

EPA executives probably hope that killing more honeybees is a small price to pay to a tsunami of “deregulation” certain to be put in force by the Trump business people about to take over this vulnerable agency.

Jeff Merkley, Senator for Oregon, like other angry Democratic Senators, grilled Pruitt, but did not get very far. Pruitt, a seasoned politician from Oklahoma, was diplomatic, repeatedly seeking cover in his mantra, “rule of law.” Nevertheless, Merkley saw through Pruitt’s polished figure. “Scott Pruitt,” Merkley said, “has spent his career to protect fossil fuel polluters rather than the public interest. As Oklahoma Attorney General, Pruitt was caught red-handed taking arguments virtually word-for-word from fossil fuel lobbyists and putting them on his official letterhead as the position of the State of Oklahoma. Under Scott Pruitt, the Environmental Protection Agency would become the ‘Polluter Protection Agency.”’

Unfortunately, Senator Merkley is slightly out of date. EPA has been a polluter protection agency for some time.

If this sounds unfair, look at honeybees. EPA has been hard to honeybees and wildlife not because most of its scientists are corrupt but because the industry, including factory farmers, have purchased their way into the White House and Congress. The result of this massive corruption has been an EPA of deception.

I witnessed this deception quite often. I worked for this industry-captured EPA for 25 years.

I remember reading the policy memoranda of the 1970s on the approval of pesticide-killers in the Jimmy Carter administration. I was heart-broken. As early as 1976, the EPA “registered,” meaning approved, neurotoxins like parathion. This parathion belongs to the same family of nerve gases that the Germans used in their genocidal murder of Jews.

Of course, EPA scientists did not connect the dots and, if they did, they remained silent. They failed to convince their political appointees that using parathion was not merely extremely dangerous to honeybees and humans but it was also morally reprehensible and violated international law.

In addition, the companies that had cooked the parathion had also invented a way to extend its lethal powers from hours to days. They put the nerve poison into microcapsules the size of dust particles, making them invisible to honeybees and people.

I used to talk to a few ecologists who were, like me, outraged by such naked example of mass poisoning. They showed me pictures of piles of dead bees. They had travelled to different states where beekeepers suffered the most damage to their hives. They would then report their findings to senior officials who ignored them.

The microencapsulated formulations of parathion lasted for decades, causing enormous damage to honeybees and other wildlife. Birds, for example, would usually die feeding in fields where farmers had applied one pound of parathion per acre.

The neonicotinoid insecticides now causing havoc to honeybees in the United States and the world are also neurotoxins made in Germany. However, both Germany and other countries in the European Union, save United Kingdom, maintain a ban on these poisons.

The other unspoken threat of these neonicotinoids and their parathion antecedents is what they do to honey. EPA scientists used to receive letters from state officials worrying that honey itself was contaminated by the nerve gases of the farmers. Once again, EPA did not interfere to stop such a deadly chain of events affecting both the natural world and human health.

In 2014, I wrote “Poison Spring: The Secret History of Pollution and the EPA.” Chapter 5 documents the history of the extensive use of the microencapsulated parathion in the United States. It also highlights the irresponsible policies of the EPA that are still pushing honeybees to the verge of extinction.

Once again, I must stress that the people responsible for these terrible EPA policies that allow neurotoxins in the environment are the owners of chemical and agribusiness companies. These executives send their lobbyists to Washington, DC and the lobbyists have their way in the White House and Congress. It’s this corruption that subverts the EPA.

The second consequence of this corruption is that, in a real sense, giant industrialized farmers no longer farm. They are hooked on powerful weapons, misleadingly called pesticides. Under the guise of fighting or preventing an insect infestation they are fighting a chemical war against honeybees and the natural world.

Finally, all these bad policies are certain to become worse under the Trump administration. More honeybees will die. People will eat more poisoned honey.

Trump appointed people to run the government who will harm both the natural world and human health. Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush did the same thing. They made government an industry laboratory. The rhetoric justifying this crude onslaught on nature and humans has always been about profits. That’s what farmers have been saying for decades. We will produce more food with the use of our “tools,” meaning neurotoxins like neonicotinoids.

This casual use of neurotoxins is dangerous. The thought that the spraying of neurotoxins has already become routine is frightening. People must eat organic food, telling the government, the politicians, and the industry enough is enough.